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THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


Hthil  <E)b$iai : 

].  N.  STRASSMAIER,  S.J. 

Censor  Deputatos. 


Imprimatur : 

EDM.  CAN.  SURMONT, 

V icarius  Generalis, 


Westmonasterii, 

Die  24  Apr  Ms,  1916. 


Hare  Street  House,. 
Buntingford. 


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i jut  '*£%!& 

%u  Ik)  **?«%• 


fyhmQn  'kpiffl  ty)J\fkt 


Note.  — Unhappily 
Mgr.  Benson  died  even 
before  the  latest  letter 
of  the  series  had  been 
written.  The  Rev.  Dom 
Bede  Camm  then  most 
kindly  consented  to  act 
as  sponsor  to  this  little 
volume. — En. 


THE 

PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

OR 

LETTERS  OF  A CONVERT 

EDITED  BY 

'P 

KATE  URSULA  BROCK 

WITH  A FOREWORD  BY 

DOM  BEDE  CAMM,  O.S.B. 


“In  His  light  shall  we  see  light.1' 


‘ Lead,  kindly  Light,  amid  th’  encircling  gloom, 
Lead  Thou  me  on  ; 

The  night  is  dark,  and  I am  far  from  home, 
Lead  Thou  me  on. 

Keep  Thou  my  feet ; I do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ; one  step  enough  for  me. 

I was  not  ever  thus,  nor  prayed  that  Thou 
Should’st  lead  me  on  ; 

I loved  to  choose  and  see  my  path,  but  now 
Lead  Thou  me  on.” 


New  York,  Cincinnati,  Chicago 

BENZIGER  BROTHERS 

PRINTERS  TO  THE  1 PUBLISHERS  OF 
HOLY  APOSTOLIC  SEE  | BENZIGER’S  MAGAZINE 

1916 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LISP  ARY 
GHLSWUT  HILL,  MASS. 


FOREWORD 

I have  been  asked  to  preface  this  admirable 
little  book  by  a few  words  of  introduction.  But, 
as  a matter  of  fact,  it  seems  to  me  that  these 
letters  speak  for  themselves. 

A well-known  writer  has,  somewhat  unkindly, 
remarked  that  most  observers  are  of  two  minds 
with  regard  to  recent  converts.  On  the  one 
hand,  they  are  inclined  to  wish  that  they  could 
be  shut  up  for  a time  till  the  effervescence  of 
their  new-found  joy  has  had  time  to  settle  down 
into  something  more  sober  and  more  normal. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  well  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  work  off  their  zeal  (that  fervor 
novitius,  as  St.  Benedict  puts  it)  upon  their 
Protestant  friends,  in  the  form  of  letters. 

This  is  the  way,  if  I mistake  not  (for  I am 
writing  out  in  the  desert,  far  from  books),  in 
which  Richard  Simpson  prefaces  his  quotation 
of  Blessed  Edmund  Campion’s  famous  letter  to 
his  friend  Cheney,  Bishop  of  Gloucester.  This 
letter  is  certainly  the  prototype  of  all  such 

vii 


Vlll 


FOREWORD 


epistles,  the  most  striking,  the  most  eloquent 
and  the  most  convincing.  But  the  Elizabethan 
directness,  with  which  the  martyr  ‘'rattles  up 
the  bones  ” of  his  old  friend,  might  be  considered 
somewhat  brutal  nowadays,  when  a milder 
and  more  persuasive  form  of  controversy  is  in 
vogue. 

Many  such  collections  have  already  appeared, 
it  is  true,  but  there  is  a freshness  about  these 
letters  which  will  appeal  to  the  reader,  and  they 
have  the  advantage  of  being  written  from  a 
slightly  different  point  of  view  from  that  of  the 
majority.  We  are  inundated  with  appeals  to 
the  High  Church  Anglican,  but  here  we  have 
letters  addressed  to  the  Agnostic  man  of  science 
and  to  the  Nonconformist  Celt. 

It  is,  of  course,  quite  impossible  to  meet  every 
objection,  every  difficulty,  in  the  brief  space  of  a 
letter  or  even  a series  of  letters. 

The  main  object  of  a writer  is  to  make  his 
correspondent  think,  and  here,  it  seems  to  me, 
Miss  Dunbar  has  been  unusually  successful.  Her 
letters,  if  slight  in  form,  are  full  of  ideas,  and  of 
ideas  subtly  expressed.  Her  fervour  is  restrained, 
though  it  pervades  the  whole  series  of  letters, 
and  never  degenerates  into  gush. 

The  quotations  from  poets  and  thinkers  are 
well  chosen  and  impressive;  and  so  far  as  I can 


FOREWORD 


IX 


judge,  the  arguments  are  scrupulously  fair, 
though  perhaps  some  Anglican  readers  may 
object  to  certain  points  in  the  summary  of  what 
the  Church  of  England  teaches.  But  it  is  really 
impossible  to  state  clearly  what  that  Church 
does  teach,  and  very  few  Anglicans  can  be  found 
to  agree  with  one  another  as  to  the  authoritative 
teaching  of  their  own  Communion.  So  elusive 
and  nebulous  are  its  doctrines,  so  studiously 
vague  its  formularies,  that  the  interpretations 
of  its  exponents  are  infinitely  various.  Quot 
homines , tot  sententiae. 

But  the  force  of  this  appeal  rests  on  its  exposi- 
tion of  Catholic  doctrine,  more  than  on  its 
refutation  of  error.  Controversy  only  wounds 
and  irritates,  while  a persuasive  statement  of 
the  beauty  of  Catholic  doctrine  attracts  the  man 
of  good-will. 

This  is  an  old  truth,  witnessed  to  by  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  missionaries,  in  his  well-known 
saying,  that  more  flies  are  caught  by  a spoonful 
of  honey  than  by  a barrel  of  vinegar.  May  this 
little  book  catch  many  flies ! 

DOM  BEDE  CAMM,  O.S.B.,  C.F. 

Deir-el-Azab  Camp, 

Fa  yum,  Egypt. 

March  28,  1916. 


PREFACE 


There  has  recently  come  into  my  possession  a 
series  of  letters  written  by  a lady  about  the  time 
of  her  conversion  to,  and  admission  into,  the 
Church  of  Rome.  As  usually  follows  such  a step, 
friends  and  acquaintances  inundated  her  with 
letters,  some  few  congratulatory,  but  the  bulk 
urging  objections,  complaining  of  her  action,  or 
pleading  for  enlightenment  on  her  views  and  the 
causes  which  had  led  her  to  embrace  the  Catholic 
faith.  She  bestowed  on  her  replies  the  utmost 
care  and  thought,  and,  being  aware  of  this  corre- 
spondence, I begged  my  friend  to  retain  copies 
of  her  letters,  if  only  to  serve  as  an  interesting 
record  of  her  early  impressions  of  the  Church. 

This  she  agreed  to  do,  and  later,  with  some  re- 
luctance, gave  me  permission  for  the  publication 
of  such  of  her  correspondence  as  I should  judge 
might  be  most  useful  to  non-Catholics,  imposing 
but  one  condition,  and  that,  that  her  personality 
should  remain  unknown. 

In  compliance  with  this  request,  while  keeping 


xi 


Xll 


PREFACE 


intact  the  main  body  of  the  letters,  I have  substi- 
tuted imaginary  names  for  the  real  ones,  and  in 
one  or  two  instances  have  suppressed  details 
which  might  lead  to  disclosure. 

" The  letters  lay  claim  to  little  literary  skill; 
they  can  only  contribute  most  unworthily  to  the 
noble  literature  of  the  Church;  but  in  so  far  as 
they  are  the  outpouring  of  a newly-awakened 
soul  and  of  a heart  overflowing  with  joy  and 
peace  in  the  discovery  of  a long-desired  haven, 
I trust  they  may  be  useful  to  some  few  seeking 
souls.  ” 

This  extract  from  a letter  addressed  to  myself 
by  the  author  of  the  correspondence  forms  the 
best  introduction  I can  possibly  offer  to  the 
letters. 

KATE  URSULA  BROCK. 


Hove,  Sussex. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


FOREWORD 

• 

• 

VU 

PREFACE 

• 

• 

• 

xi 

LETTER 

I. 

CATHOLICISM  NOT  INTELLECTUAL 

ENSLAVE- 

MENT  .... 

I 

II. 

“ COMING  HOME  ” . 

• 

. 

9 

III. 

DOGMA  A NECESSITY 

. 

16 

IV. 

THE  TRUE  SIGNIFICANCE 

OF  THE 

TERM 

“ CATHOLIC  " 

• 

• 

22 

V. 

god’s  way 

• 

• 

30 

VI. 

THE  BLESSED  SACRAMENT 

• 

• 

38 

VII. 

ANGLICAN  COMPROMISE 

♦ 

• 

44 

VIII. 

“ MY  FIRST  MASS  ” . 

• 

. 

50 

IX. 

“ TAKE  UP  AND  READ,  TAKE 

UP  AND 

READ 

57 

X. 

“ AN  IMMENSE  CHASM  ” . 

• 

62 

XI. 

CHILDREN  IN  THE  CHURCH 

• 

• 

69 

XII. 

THE  WORLD’S  ESTIMATE  OF 

THE 

CATHOLIC 

CHURCH 

• 

. 

76 

XIII. 

THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE  . 

• 

83 

XIV. 

THE  “ BRANCH  ” THEORY 

. 

. 

• 

93 

XV. 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE  AND  CATHOLIC  MUNIFI 


XIV 


CONTENTS 


LETTER  PAGE 

XVI.  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ST.  PETER  . . IO3 

XVII.  CATHOLIC  VENERATION  OF  OUR  LADY  . IIO 

XVIII.  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MASS  . . . Il6 

XIX.  OUR  LORD  IN  THE  TABERNACLE  . . 122 

XX.  MORAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  . 1 27 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


LETTER  I 

CATHOLICISM  NOT  INTELLECTUAL 
ENSLAVEMENT 

The  following  six  letters  were  written  by  Miss 
Dunbar  to  an  old  family  friend,  Mr.  Neville 
Champneys,  a man  of  distinguished  scientific 
achievement,  but  little  religious  belief.  He  was 
intensely  interested  in  the  conversion  of  Miss 
Dunbar  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  as  he  and  she  had 
for  some  years  entertained  the  same  religious 
opinions ; but  while  she  had  gained  in  the  Church 
a haven  of  peace  and  settled  conviction,  he  re- 
mained still  in  the  seething  waters  of  free-thought 
and  unbelief. 

The  first  letter  is  a reply  to  one  of  congratula- 
tion from  Mr.  Champneys,  in  which  he  spoke  of 
his  pleasure  on  hearing  of  Miss  Dunbar’s  newly- 
found  happiness,  at  the  same  time  expressing  his 
surprise  that  she  had  been  able  to  submit  to  “ the 
intellectual  slavery  imposed  by  the  Church  of 
Rome  on  all  her  children  ” ! 

Dear  Neville, 

How  kind  of  you  to  send  me  such  a nice 
congratulatory  letter,  especially  as  you  are  really 
so  little  in  sympathy  with  me.  I am  afraid  you 

i 


2 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


feel  it  is  rather  like  felicitating  a friend  who  is 
happily  married  to  someone  you  intensely  dislike ; 
but  yet,  I believe,  in  your  heart  of  hearts,  you  have 
a deep  respect  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  spite 
of  the  “ intellectual  slavery  ” to  which  you  sup- 
pose she  reduces  her  children. 

No  one,  however,  is  compelled  to  join  the 
Church  unless  urged  thereto  by  his  own  free 
choice  and  personal  conviction  that  it  is  the 
one  true  Fold;  so  if  there  be  slavery,  it  is  volun- 
tary, and  cannot  therefore  be  very  irksome.  But, 
indeed,  there  is  no  enslaving  of  the  intellect.  On 
the  contrary,  Catholics  are  allowed  the  utmost 
freedom.  The  Bible  is  not,  as  is  commonly  sup- 
posed, a closed  book  to  them;  they  read  it  daily, 
and  make  it  the  subject  of  their  constant  medi- 
tation. Current  literature  of  every  kind  is  to  be 
found  in  all  our  great  libraries  and  on  our  private 
book-shelves,  and  is  read  freely  and  fearlessly  by 
both  priests  and  laity. 

It  is  true  that  none  are  admitted  to  the  Church 
who  do  not  pledge  themselves  to  hold  intact  the 
body  of  doctrine  which  she  teaches,  but  this  is  an 
act  of  free-will  and  reason,  and  the  intellect  feels 
no  fetter.  Rather,  the  acceptance  of  truths  formu- 
lated by  the  greatest  saints  and  thinkers  of  the 
ages,  through  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
opens  out  new  and  wonderful  regions  of  thought, 


CATHOLICISM  NOT  ENSLAVEMENT  3 


where  the  mind  may  range  and  find  itself  expanded 
and  elevated.  Christian  doctrine  provides  rare 
food  for  mind  and  soul,  and  when  you  consider 
what  a stupendous  work  of  regeneration  it  has 
achieved  in  the  world,  can  you  really  doubt  that 
God  Himself  is  the  Author  of  it  ? 

The  Agnostics  and  the  Rationalists  of  the 
present  day  find  it  hard  to  accept  anything  which 
is  at  variance  with  their  own  experience  of  life. 
Many  of  them  seem  to  think  that  the  intellects 
of  this  generation  have  already  encompassed  all 
knowledge,  have  already  received  the  impress  of 
all  attainable  truth,  and  they  question  and  finally 
reject  whatever  seems  to  be  miraculous  because 
it  appears  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  poor,  limited, 
human  reason.  I do  not  suppose  you  are  one  of 
these,  but  I know  well  that  we  may  easily  become 
the  unconscious  victims  of  an  intellectual  pride 
which  renders  it  difficult  for  us  to  embrace  any 
truth  that  is  not  in  harmony  with  our  own  par- 
ticular habits  of  thought.  And,  indeed;  I can 
remember  the  time  when  to  me,  too,  the  Christian 
revelation  appeared  nothing  better  than  a beau- 
tifully absurd  theory,  a delightful  fiction,  well 
adapted  to  mediaeval  minds,  but  beneath  the 
dignity  of  the  enlightened,  scientific  students  of 
the  present  age  ! Yet  now  I am  myself  a Catho- 
lic, in  belief  a Christian  of  the  Christians,  another 


4 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


slave,  if  you  will,  who  has  placed  her  neck  cheer- 
fully beneath  the  yoke  of  the  Church’s  authority, 
and  finds  “ the  yoke  easy  and  the  burden  light.” 

“ What,”  you  will  ask,  “ can  have  brought 
about  the  change  ?”  I have  just  spoken  of  the 
work  of  regeneration  wrought  by  the  Christian 
revelation.  That  was  an  aspect  of  Christianity 
which  I had  hitherto  utterly  neglected.  I had 
heard  of  “ conversions,”  it  is  true,  but  they 
seemed  to  occur  chiefly  among  servant-girls, 
criminals,  and  the  heathen,  and  I never  gave  them 
any  serious  thought.  Apparently  they  were  ex- 
periences which  belonged  to  a sphere  far  removed 
from  my  own.  It  was  not  until  I had  read  that 
remarkable  book  by  Mr.  C.  S.  Devas,  “ The  Key 
to  the  World’s  Progress,”  that  I began  to  com- 
prehend the  real  significance  of  the  conversion 
of  the  nations  to  Christianity.  Somehow  or 
other  the  vastness  of  the  Christian  enterprise  and 
its  astonishing  success  had  never  before  gripped 
my  imagination.  Mr.  Devas  pictures  the  condi- 
tion of  the  world  before  and  after  the  coming  of 
our  Lord,  and  marks  the  changes  wrought  by  His 
gentle  sway.  He  shows  how  home-life,  as  we 
know  it,  sprang  into  being,  a home-life  such  as 
the  despairing  Augustus  dreamed  of  and  desired 
for  his  people,  but  could  not  teach  them.  He 
portrays  the  new  Law  working  through  all  grades 


CATHOLICISM  NOT  ENSLAVEMENT  5 

of  society,  like  leaven  in  the  dough;  the  Church, 
whose  seed  was  sown  in  pain  and  obscurity, 
spreading  forth,  like  a mustard-tree,  great  branches 
for  the  shelter  and  healing  of  the  nations. 

The  whole  structure  of  Pagan  civilization  be- 
came gradually  saturated  with  a new  and  bene- 
ficent influence.  No  sudden  revolution  shook 
the  world,  but  there  took  place  a quiet  yet  com- 
plete transformation  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
men.  Converts  to  Christianity  were  presently 
to  be  found  in  all  ranks,  and  by  the  power  of  the 
new  teaching  their  whole  outlook  on  life  was 
clarified  and  changed.  The  wealthy  learned  the 
right  use  of  their  riches,  the  poor  contentment 
in  their  poverty.  Masters  learned  kindness  and 
consideration  to  the  slaves  who  shared  equally 
with  them  the  blessed  privileges  of  the  Sacra- 
ments; slaves,  a better  obedience  in  all  worldly 
matters,  but  also  a new  dignity,  born  of  the  per- 
ception that  they  worshipped  a God  to  whom 
both  master  and  slave  are  equally  precious  and 
dear. 

We  have  become  so  accustomed  to  the  Chris- 
tian standards  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  what 
the  world  was  without  them. 

We  have  no  parallel  in  these  days  with  the 
Pagan  world  as  it  was  in  the  height  of  its  barbaric 
splendour.  The  unreclaimed  savage  presents  no 


6 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


likeness  to  the  ancient  Roman,  and  the  heathen 
civilization  of  to-day  is  undoubtedly  suffused  and 
permeated  by  some  faint  rays,  at  least,  of  the 
Light  which  rose  in  Galilee. 

The  stupendous  change,  therefore,  which  was 
wrought  by  the  advent  of  Christ,  can  only  be  ap- 
preciated by  the  aid  of  the  imagination.  I began 
to  study  carefully  the  record  of  the  Church’s  work, 
and  I perceived  that  not  only  in  one  period  of  the 
world’s  history,  but  at  all  times,  not  in  one  place, 
but  everywhere,  when  and  where  the  Gospel  had 
been  taught  and  rightly  obeyed,  there  had  arisen 
order  out  of  chaos,  law  out  of  lawlessness,  inno- 
cence and  purity  where  before  had  existed  appal- 
ling depths  of  sin  and  degradation.  Not  slavery 
but  freedom  seemed  to  be  the  key-note  of  the 
Church’s  message — liberation  from  the  bondage 
of  sin,  and  an  entrance  into  the  “ glorious  freedom 
of  the  children  of  God.”*  You  will  remember  all 
that  our  Lord  and  St.  Paul  had  to  say  about  this : 
I saw  that  their  words  were  for  ever  coming  true 
in  the  history  of  the  Church. 

From  a broad  view  of  her  work  I passed  on  to 
the  individual  histories  of  the  saints,  and  pondered 
over  the  lives  of  St.  Paul,  SS.  Augustine,  Ignatius 

* All  quotations  from  the  Bible  which  occur  in  the 
Letters  are  taken  from  the  Protestant  “ Authorized 
Version." — L.  D. 


CATHOLICISM  NOT  ENSLAVEMENT  7 


Loyola,  Francis  of  Asissi,  and  many  another;  I 
was  struck  once  more  by  the  astonishing  and  com- 
plete change  of  life  that  conversion  to  Christianity 
had  effected.  No  such  results  could  be  produced 
without  some  powerful  cause.  Would-be  re- 
formers in  pre-Christian  times  had  preached  in 
vain  the  lessons  which  were  the  first  alphabet  of 
Christian  practice.  No  mere  promise  of  benefits 
to  follow,  nor  even  of  eternal  life,  could  have 
wrought  the  transformation  in  men  and  nations 
which  history  records.  The  recently- discovered 
Apology  of  Aristides  gives  us  some  idea  of  the 
impression  which  the  new  sect  made  upon  cul- 
tured Greek  society  in  the  first  centuries. 

“ Truly  divine,”  says  Aristides,  “ is  that  which 
is  spoken  by  the  mouth  of  the  Christians,  and  their 
teaching  is  the  gateway  of  light.  Let  all  those 
then  approach  thereunto  who  do  not  know  God, 
and  let  them  receive  incorruptible  words,  those 
which  are  so  always  and  from  eternity.” 

My  reflections  led  me  back  to  a more  careful 
study  of  the  Christian  revelation  than  I had  ever 
before  given  it.  At  least  it  seemed  likely  that 
the  doctrine  might  be  divine  after  all,  and  no  mere 
fiction  of  ignorant  and  susceptible  minds. 

I applied  myself  to  the  works  of  the  great 
Catholic  writers,  and  through  them  gained,  for 
the  first  time,  a true  conception  of  the  nature  and 


8 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


mission  of  Christ  and  His  Church.  I saw  clearly 
that  where  there  had  been  failure,  " it  was  not 
the  wonderful  religion  that  was  at  fault/’  but 
barbaric  human  nature  which  lagged  in  its  re- 
sponse to  the  high  call.  I could  no  longer  resist 
the  conclusion.  I became  once  more  a Christian, 
and  my  researches  ended,  as  you  know,  in  my 
admission  to  the  Church.  A return  to  Christianity 
was  for  me  synonymous  with  becoming  a Catholic, 
for  no  other  Church  than  that  known  as  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  appears  to  have  any  valid  right 
to  call  itself  the  Church  of  Christ,  no  other  speaks 
with  such  a convincing  and  clear  voice  of  author- 
ity, no  other  has  existed  in  unbroken  continuity 
from  the  beginning. 

Y ou  will  see  from  this  that  it  has  not  been  with- 
out thought  and  study  and  due  deliberation  that 
I have  taken  the  step  which  has  caused  some  of 
my  friends  so  much  surprise. 

I am  ever, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTERED 
“ COMING  HOME  ” 

The  foregoing  received  an  immediate  reply  from 
Mr.  Champneys,  who  begged  Miss  Dunbar,  if 
the  request  did  not  seem  impertinent,  to  tell 
him  something  more  of  the  experiences  and 
phases  of  thought  which  had  led  her,  once  a 
confirmed  Agnostic,  to  reconsider  the  Christian 
claims. 

To  this  request  Miss  Dunbar  readily  acceded, 
and  replied  in  the  words  of  the  following  letter : 

Dear  Neville, 

Thank  you  for  your  letter.  I am  indeed 
a very  enviable  person  in  these  days.  It  is  an 
untold  joy  to  have  found  at  last  what  I have 
been  vainly  seeking  for  so  many  years,  and  there 
are  times  when  I can  scarcely  believe  my  own 
good  fortune 

The  transition  from  agnosticism  to  faith  was 
naturally  a very  difficult  one,  and  looking  back, 
I see  that  it  was  only  by  very  slow  degrees 
at  first  that  the  darkness  was  illuminated,  the 
fog  dispersed;  that  it  was  only  one  by  one,  and 
tediously  and  painfully,  that  my  convictions 

9 


10 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


were  acquired,  until  the  final  burst  of  light 
broke  through  the  last  flimsy  veil  of  prejudice 
and  unbelief,  and  then  faith  grew  perfect  in  a 
few  short  months. 

There  can  be  no  question  of  impertinence 
between  us.  You  may  ask  me  what  you  please, 
and  if  it  interests  you  in  the  least,  I will  tell 
you  all  I can  about  the  influences  and  experiences 
which  led  me  to  make  a fresh  examination  of 
the  Christian  claims. 

You  will  remember  that  I lost  my  belief 
seven  years  ago.  Long  and  anxious  thought  on 
the  mystery  of  the  Christian  revelation,  and  much 
reading  of  scientific  and  agnostic  books,  brought 
me  at  last  to  the  conclusion  that  no  such  viola- 
tion of  Nature’s  laws  as  we  were  expected  to  accept 
in  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ  could 
ever  have  taken  place.  The  Anglican  Church, 
even  the  High  Church  section  to  which  I be- 
longed, had  never  succeeded  in  bringing  me  into 
close  personal  relationship  with  Him;  I had, 
therefore,  very  little  of  what  is  known  as  spiritual 
experience  to  guide  me,  and  I rejected  everything 
except  a vague  belief  in,  and  a sense  of  God  as 
my  Father. 

You  know  something  of  what  followed.  During 
the  next  few  years  my  state  of  mind  became 
what  yours  is  now — a groping  in  the  dark,  a 


“ COMING  HOME  ” 


ii 


restless,  unsatisfied  craving  for  certainties  which 
seemed  to  be  for  ever  lost  sight  of.  Music, 
science,  and  archaeology  were  among  my  studies ; 
I read  a great  many  books  and  met  a good  many 
people,  but  all  the  time  my  soul  lay  in  a dungeon. 
Like  a plant  hidden  from  the  light,  it  grew 
etiolated  and  enfeebled,  and  I seemed  to  be  left 
at  last  altogether  without  spiritual  life  and 
strength.  One  prayer  alone  continued  to  comfort 
me — the  “ Our  Father  ” — but  even  that  sweet 
petition  too  often  sounded  meaningless  upon 
my  lips.  “ How  can  I tell  that  the  Force  behind 
the  shows  of  things  is  Love  and  Goodness  ?” 
was  the  question  that  deprived  all  prayer  of 
its  significance. 

Then  I plunged  more  deeply  into  science, 
and  sought  to  find,  through  the  medium  of  scien- 
tific fact,  some  clue  to  the  hidden  destinies  of 
man  and  the  nature  of  his  Maker.  I think  my 
desires  had  the  semblance  of  a prayer,  for,  peering 
through  my  microscope  in  the  laboratory,  there 
was  vouchsafed,  in  some  degree,  an  answer  to 
my  queries. 

Little  by  little,  as  I watched  the  tiny  life-stream 
coursing  through  the  cells  of  a humble  plant, 
and  observed  with  what  precision  and  supreme 
foresight  the  grains  of  food  material  are  stored 
up  in  the  seed,  there  came  stealing  into  my  heart 


12 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


a wholly  new  perception  of  the  mercy  and  good- 
ness of  the  Force  which  I acknowledged,  but 
had  ceased  any  longer  truly  to  adore. 

The  greater  beauties  of  the  world  had  failed 
to  teach  me  the  lesson  that  the  thread-like  veins 
in  a blade  of  grass,  the  infinitesimal  cells  of  a 
seed,  had  driven  home — that  God  is  indeed 
Love. 

With  such  amazing  care  for  the  most  insignifi- 
cant creations  of  His  hand,  was  it  possible  that 
the  soul  of  man  had  been  left  by  the  Creator 
needy  and  unfed  ? It  could  not  be. 

Yet  where,  where  was  the  infinite  provision 
to  be  found  which  alone  could  satisfy  an  infinite 
need  ? 

I loved  beauty  and  had  pursued  it  ardently. 
Earth,  sky,  and  sea;  art,  poetry,  and  music, 
had  all  ministered  to  my  pleasure.  I had  found 
exquisite  delight  in  the  love  and  sympathy  of 
friends;  I had  known  something  of  the  joys  of 
learning  and  the  excitement  of  travel.  Yet 
none  of  these  things  had  afforded  any  enduring 
satisfaction.  At  length  there  dawned  on  me 
this  old,  time-worn  conclusion,  this  platitude 
of  the  saints — that  nothing  less  than  God  Him- 
self is  the  proper  food  of  the  soul,  and  that  only 
in  union  with  Him  can  imperishable  joy  be  found. 
Prayer  then,  prayer  that  I had  so  long  neglected, 


" COMING  HOME  ” 


13 


must,  after  all,  be  the  means  of  attaining  happi- 
ness, for  prayer  is  the  joining  of  our  souls  to  God, 
as  the  plant  is  joined  to  the  root.  Truly,  I 
believed  I had  at  last  discovered  the  profound 
secret  of  a happy  life. 

But  alas  ! like  St.  Augustine  before  his  con- 
version, " though  I was  borne  up  to  God  by  His 
beauty,  I was  soon  borne  down  again  by  my  own 
weight.”  For  a time,  a few  weeks  at  most,  all 
went  well,  and  I experienced  intermittently 
something  of  the  joy  I had  anticipated.  Then 
the  old  questions  reasserted  themselves;  most 
terrible  of  all,  my  doubts  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  arose  with  greater  insistence  than 
before,  and  “ Cui  bono  ?”  was  the  end  of  all 
my  prayers  and  the  destruction  for  the  time 
of  all  my  peace. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  I suffered  the  great 
loss  of  which  you  know,  and  it  was  while  standing 
by  that  death-bed  and  gazing  on  the  exquisite 
dead  face,  with  its  ineffable  smile,  that  God  gave 
me  the  assurance  for  which  I longed. 

Almost  from  the  first  hour  after  I lost  that 
dearly-loved  one  I was  convinced  of  the  undying 
nature  of  the  soul.  It  was  only  the  poor  tired 
body  that  we  laid  for  its  repose  beneath  the 
roses,  nothing  more  precious,  nothing  of  the  real, 
dear  self — of  this  I was  intuitively  convinced 


14 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


beyond  all  shadow  of  doubt.  Pain  and  death 
and  decay  were  not  conquerors;  the  soul  of  my 
beloved  one  had  outstripped  them  all.  Shortly 
afterwards,  by  what  seemed  a miraculous  chance, 
I met  a delightful  woman,  whose  sympathetic 
manner  and  high  culture  immediately  attracted 
me.  She  had  all  the  frank,  sweet  gaiety  of  a 
child,  yet  I learned  that  she  had  suffered  as  few 
have  done,  and  she  was  a Catholic.  We  never 
talked  of  religion,  but  I was  distinctly  aware 
that  she  lived  in  a constant  realization  of  the 
Presence  of  God,  and  when  I discovered  that 
the  secret  spring  of  her  life  was  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  I realized  for  the  first 
time  the  astonishing  power  of  a true  faith, 
and  I began  to  crave  as  never  before  for  that  faith, 
and  for  that  food  which  were  able  to  bestow  such 
marvellous  gifts  of  joy  and  strength.  Very 
shortly  afterwards  the  book  by  Mr.  C.  S.  Devas, 
which  I mentioned  in  my  last  letter,  was  put 
into  my  hand. 

Also,  at  this  time,  I had  several  strange  and 
wonderful  experiences  which  led  me  far  along 
the  road  to  the  goal  that  I was  nearing. 

In  the  Man  of  Sorrows  I began  to  anticipate 
the  end  of  my  long  quest,  the  satisfaction  of 
my  aching  need.  I beheld  in  imagination  the 
world  as  it  was  without  Him,  and  contrasted 


“ COMING  HOME  ” 


15 


with  that  Pagan  world  the  noble  army  of  saints 
and  martyrs;  and  my  friend  as  she  might  have 
been,  borne  down  with  the  weight  of  many 
troubles,  with  the  woman  I knew  in  her  triumph- 
ant joy. 

These  things  could  only  be  the  work  of  God; 
no  tissue  of  lies  could  possibly  underlie  such  a 
wealth  of  power  and  beauty. 

After  the  period  of  careful  study  and  anxious 
thought  of  which  I told  you,  I was  admitted  to 
the  Church;  I came  home  at  last,  and  ever  since 
I have  experienced  the  utmost  peace  and  happi- 
ness. 

That  you  may  soon  find  your  way  home,  too, 
is  the  constant  prayer  of 

Your  sincere  friend, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  III 


DOGMA  A NECESSITY 

Deeply  interested  but  only  partially  convinced, 
Mr.  Champneys  found  it  impossible  to  consider 
the  Church’s  claims  on  account  of  the  dogma 
which  he  needs  must  accept.  He  confessed  to 
an  invincible  dislike  and  distrust  of  dogma,  and 
had  hitherto  refused  to  study  the  works  of  the 
great  Catholic  theologians  or  to  give  any  attention 
to  the  evidence  for  the  reality  of  those  things 
which  are  maintained  in  the  Creeds. 

In  the  following  letter  Miss  Dunbar  seeks  to 
show  how  illogical  is  the  position  of  those  who, 
while  admiring  the  Church  with  all  their  heart, 
yet  persist  in  denying  her  possession  of  the 
truth. 

Dear  Neville, 

The  obstacle  to  your  submission  to  the 
Church  is  the  very  foundation  on  which  the  Church 
is  built.  You  say  it  is  impossible  for  you  to 
accept  the  dogma,  but  no  Church  was  ever 
instituted  without  dogma  being  a necessity  for 
its  guidance,  its  teaching,  and  its  cohesion.  A 
State  is  founded  upon  laws,  and  a Church  on 
dogma;  and  a man  might  as  well  say  he  would 
become  a naturalized  Englishman  if  there  were 

16 


DOGMA  A NECESSITY 


17 

no  English  laws,  as  that  he  would  become  a 
Catholic  if  there  were  no  Catholic  dogma. 

Do  not  condemn  that  dogma  and  dismiss  it 
from  your  mind  just  yet.  Study  it  more  care- 
fully, try  to  approach  your  difficulties  from  a 
new  standpoint  if  you  can;  perhaps  they  will 
then  present  a rather  different  aspect. 

If  you  were  shown  a stately  mansion  or  castle, 
standing  where  it  had  stood  for  many  a long 
century,  unshaken  by  wind  and  storm,  uninjured 
by  rain  and  sunshine,  would  you  be  so  foolish 
as  to  say:  “ I will  not  believe  that  house  is  sound, 
for  all  its  good  appearance.  It  is  so  old,  the 
foundations  must  be  crumbling  away.  When 
it  was  built,  nothing  was  done  so  well  as  nowa- 
days " ? 

Rather,  I think,  you  would  wish  to  know 
something  of  the  methods  and  materials  of  the 
builders  whose  work  had  so  long  withstood  the 
inroads  of  old  Time. 

If  you  knew  a State  whose  citizens  were  rich 
and  happy,  where  trade  was  good  and  crime 
diminishing,  would  you  be  so  wrong-headed  as 
to  suppose  the  laws  were  unjust  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  State  corrupt  ? Rather,  I think, 
you  would  seek  by  study  to  master  the  secrets 
of  its  so  successful  government.  Yet  what  is 
your  position  with  regard  to  the  Church  ? You 


18  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

acknowledge  her  beauty  and  stability,  you 
marvel  at  her  ever-renewed  vitality,  you  rever- 
ence and  honour  the  saints  she  has  produced. 
You  admit  that  the  way  of  perfection  is  in  her 
borders,  that  her  worship  is  the  most  rational, 
her  practice  the  most  consistent  of  any  religious 
body  in  the  world,  and  yet,  with  this  marvellous 
structure  before  you,  this  city  of  pearl,  with 
streets  of  pure  gold,  you  still  can  say:  “ The 
foundations  are  rotten,  the  dogma  is  untrue.” 
I feel  constrained  to  ask  you:  “ Do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ?”  If  the 
fruit  be  good,  and  you  do  not  deny  that  it  is  of 
the  very  best — what  Church  has  ever  borne 
more  glorious  fruit  than  holy  Francis,  or  the 
noble  Catherine  of  Siena;  than  St.  Ignatius,  or 
St.  Teresa  ? — how  can  you  suppose  the  root  is 
rotten  and  corrupt  ? 

As  a scientific  man,  you  find  it  hard  to  accept 
as  fact  anything  which  seems  to  be  miraculous, 
anything  which  appears  to  be  out  of  harmony 
with  the  laws  of  Nature  as  we  know  them  in 
operation. 

Do  make  a great  endeavour  to  lift  your  eyes  for  a 
time  above  these  facts  which  are  such  stumbling- 
blocks  to  you,  look  away  from  the  substructure 
to  the  noble  edifice  which  crowns  it;  cast  aside 
the  outer  shell  of  hard,  unpalatable  fact,  and 


DOGMA  A NECESSITY 


19 


examine  the  sweet  kernel  of  pure,  ethical  and 
moral  teaching  it  contains;  and  see  if  afterwards 
the  facts  do  not  fall  into  place  as  acceptable 
and  necessary  for  the  conservation  of  the  truth. 
Rightly  understood,  there  is  not  a single  sentence 
of  the  dogma  you  reject  which  does  not  enshrine 
a divine  and  eternal  principle. 

That  charming  free-lance,  Lafcadio  Hearn, 
standing  in  a Japanese  “ Joss-house,”  exclaims: 
“ Each  eidolon  shaped  by  human  faith  remains 
the  shell  of  a truth  eternally  divine,  and  even  the 
shell  itself  may  hold  a ghostly  power.”  At  another 
time  he  writes:  “ We  have  reason  even  to  suppose 
that  no  dream  of  the  invisible  world  has  ever 
been  dreamed,  that  no  hypothesis  of  the  Unseen 
has  ever  been  imagined,  which  future  science 
will  not  prove  to  have  contained  some  germ  of 
reality.”  If  this  be  true  of  dying  and  extinct 
beliefs,  what  must  we  think  of  a body  of  doctrine 
which  has  remained  intact  through  nearly  two 
thousand  years,  which  to-day  claims  more 
adherents  than  ever  in  the  past,  and  is  rapidly 
gaining  ground  at  the  expense  of  all  other  religious 
beliefs  of  the  civilized  world  ? 

The  great  Pasteur  became  a more  deeply 
convinced  Catholic  the  farther  he  advanced  along 
the  paths  of  science  and  discovery. 

I know  so  well  the  things  which  keep  you 


20 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


back,  but  there  is  one  great  fact  which,  if  you 
can  accept  in  its  entirety,  and  with  an  absolute 
simplicity  of  faith,  everything  else  must  follow  by 
a sort  of  natural  development.  It  was  to  this 
essential,  fundamental  truth  that  I addressed 
my  whole  thought  and  will  and  longing  to 
believe. 

“ In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God  . . . 
and  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among 
us.” 

If  once  you  can  believe  in  this  stupendous 
act  of  God’s  love,  by  which  He  sought  to  teach 
the  world  every  lesson  it  need  ever  learn,  if  once 
you  will  allow  this  heavenly  truth  to  capture 
your  heart  and  mind,  your  objections  to  Catholic 
doctrine  will  evaporate,  as  mine  did,  like  morning 
mist  before  the  sun. 

See  in  Jesus  Christ  a perfect  revelation  of 
God’s  attitude  towards  us,  and  everything  you 
cannot  understand  you  will  accept  humbly, 
waiting  for  the  light  which  one  day  will  disperse 
all  shadows. 

I am  convinced  that  nothing  which  is  beautiful 
and  full  of  power  to  elevate,  has  ever  been 
conceived  by  the  mind  of  man,  which  was  not 
first  contained  within  the  mind  of  God,  and 
observing  closely  and  studying  deeply  the  great 


DOGMA  A NECESSITY 


21 


work  of  regeneration  achieved  by  our  Blessed 
Lord  in  national  and  individual  life,  it  became 
impossible  for  me  any  longer  to  doubt  that  He 
and  His  Church  have  taught  divine  truth,  and 
have  been  supported  by  divine  energy  all  along. 

Without  these,  “the  house,  built  upon  the 
sand  ” of  fallacy  and  presumption,  must  long 
since  inevitably  have  collapsed. 

The  appearance  of  the  humblest  flower  by 
the  wayside  is  a sign  to  you  of  the  certain  presence 
of  strange  and  subtle  forces. 

You  bend  your  concentrated  thought  and  exert 
your  every  power  to  wrest  its  secret  from  the 
dainty  form.  The  great  and  glorious  Flower  of 
God  scatters  its  fragrance  up  and  down  the  world, 
purifying  the  sin-laden  atmosphere,  refreshing 
dry  and  dusty  stretches,  and  making  sweet 
places  of  repose  for  weary  souls.  Do  not  say 
its  root  is  rotten:  study  it.  It  is  no  mushroom 
growth  of  yesterday,  and  will  not  perish  at  your 
touch.  It  is  the  hardiest  perennial  you  have 
ever  seen.  Let  me  beg  you  once  again  to  take 
a course  of  Catholic  reading;  it  will  repay  you 
as  no  other  study  ever  can. 

Believe  me,  as  ever, 

Yours  sincerely, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  IV 

THE  TRUE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE 
TERM  “ CATHOLIC  ” 

The  following  letter,  addressed  to  Mr.  Champneys, 
may  be  of  interest  in  view  of  the  persistent  use 
by  Anglicans  of  the  title  “ Catholic  ” in  reference 
to  their  Church. 

Mr.  Champneys,  who  appears  at  this  time  to 
have  been  inclined  to  consider  the  claims  of 
Christian  dogma,  wrote  to  ask  Miss  Dunbar  why, 
in  view  of  the  apparent  similarity  between 
High  Anglicanism  and  Catholicism,  she  had  never 
found  any  satisfaction  in  the  tenets  of  the  Church 
of  England  ? 

" If  the  Catholic  tendencies  of  the  Anglican 
Church  pleased  you  so  little,”  he  wrote,  “ I do 
not  quite  understand  the  source  of  your  entire 
contentment  in  the  Church  of  Rome/' 

Dear  Neville, 

You  must  be  prepared  for  a long  disserta- 
tion if  you  wish  me  to  give  you  any  real  answer 
to  the  queries  in  your  last  letter. 

You  are  anxious  to  know  what  precisely  is 
the  source  of  my  utter  content  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  seeing  that  High  Anglicanism  gave  me 

22 


THE  TERM  “ CATHOLIC  ” 23 

so  little  satisfaction,  in  spite  of  its  “ Catholic 
tendencies/’ 

I believe  there  is  scarcely  a word  in  our  language 
that  is  more  wantonly  abused  in  England  in 
the  present  day  than  that  term  “ Catholic  ” ! 
It  is  used  by  so  many  and  various  parties,  and 
by  each  in  a sense  totally  different  from  that  in 
which  it  is  employed  by  the  others. 

The  Catholic  Church  uses  it  to  describe  the 
ancient,  Apostolic,  and  Universal  Church,  which 
is  united  in  one  great  body  under  the  headship 
of  the  See  of  Rome.  The  members  of  the 
“ advanced  ” section  of  the  Anglican  Church 
apply  it  to  their  own  “ High  Church  ” party, 
seemingly  because  they  seek  in  external  practice 
to  copy  the  primitive  Church,  though  they  will 
not  commit  themselves  to  the  whole  body  of 
primitive  doctrine. 

Lord  Halifax,  again,  employed  the  term 
" Catholic  ” indiscriminately  both  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  and  the  whole  Anglican  community, 
ignoring  the  break  in  continuity  caused  by  the 
Reformation,  the  many  varieties  of  belief  held 
in  the  English  Church,  and  the  essential,  funda- 
mental differences  of  faith  which  must  always 
exist  between  two  Churches,  the  pride  of  one  of 
which  is  its  universality,  and  the  boast  of  the 
other  its  national  character. 


24 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


The  use,  or  rather  misuse,  of  this  word  in  so 
many  different  senses  has  much  to  do  with  the 
prevailing  confusion  of  ideas  concerning  true 
Catholic  principles. 

The  so-called  “ Catholic  tendencies  ” of  the 
Anglican  Church  are  so  little  Catholic  that  they 
are  bound  to  cause  disappointment  and  dis- 
satisfaction to  anyone  who  seeks  in  them  an 
outlet  for  truly  Catholic  instincts.  There  is 
an  outward  semblance  of  Catholicity  without 
a corresponding  inner  reality,  a use  of  sacred 
terms  that  is  little  short  of  sacrilegious,  so  faintly 
do  the  things  they  are  made  to  stand  for  resemble 
the  glorious  realities  to  express  which  they  were 
first  coined. 

This  is  a long  preamble,  but  it  is  necessary  in 
order  to  make  clear  to  you  in  the  first  place 
why  the  Anglican  Church  so  signally  failed  to 
hold  my  allegiance,  and  in  the  second  place 
why  I find  in  my  submission  to  the  Church  of 
Rome  a source  of  ever-increasing  happiness  and 
satisfaction.  As  compromise  (disguised  as  so- 
called  “ comprehensiveness  ”)  is  the  key-note 
of  the  Anglican  position,  so  is  an  uncompromising 
definiteness  the  source  of  the  strength  and  influ- 
ence of  Rome.  Rightly  analyzed,  the  “ Catholic 
tendencies  ” of  the  national  Church  are  found  to 
be  merely  a sort  of  mirage  in  the  Protestant 


THE  TERM  " CATHOLIC  ” 


25 


desert.  They  offer  refreshment  that  is  illusory, 
they  promise  gifts  that  are  shadowy  and  unreal. 

Do  not  think  I am  harsh  towards  the  Church 
in  which  I was  brought  up.  I have  no  quarrel 
with  her  ministers,  many  of  whom  I know  well, 
whose  devotion  to  duty  and  saintly  lives  I admire 
more  than  I can  say.  They,  as  well  as  the  laity 
they  teach,  are  deceived  as  to  the  position  of 
the  Church  they  love.  While  calling  themselves 
Catholics,  they  are  not  aware  that  in  the  doctrine 
they  hold  there  is  not  a single  point  which  is 
Catholic  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word  ! 

If  you  think  I exaggerate,  a comparison  of  the 
beliefs  of  both  Churches  will  show  you  that  I 
am  only  speaking  the  truth.  In  the  first  place, 
the  Catholic  Church,  from  the  earliest  days, 
has  looked  for  guidance  and  governance  to  one 
Head,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  if  any  portion 
of  the  primitive  Church  rebelled  against  the 
Holy  See  and  refused  submission  to  it,  the 
offending  members  were  no  more  considered  to 
be  a part  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  were 
Arians,  Donat ists,  Nestorians,  Pelagians,  or  what 
not,  but  no  longer  Catholics.  The  Church  of 
England  refuses  submission  to  the  Holy  See, 
and  looks  to  the  sovereign  of  the  realm  as  the 
final  arbitrator  in  ecclesiastical  matters  ! 

The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  that  the  Sacra- 


26 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


ment  of  Baptism  regenerates  the  soul  and  cleanses 
it  from  actual  and  inherited  stains  of  sin.  The 
Articles  of  the  English  Church  declare  that  it 
is  merely  a sign  of  “ regeneration  and  new 
birth,”  a ratification  of  promises  already  re- 
ceived, not  the  actual  means  by  which  they  are 
put  into  operation,  and  though  the  Anglican 
Catechism  and  the  Baptismal  Service  are  so 
worded  that  a Catholic  interpretation  may  be 
(and  often  is)  placed  upon  their  formularies, 
so  long  as  the  authorities  allow  Catholic  doctrines 
to  be  denied,  the  Church  of  England  does  not 
really  teach  them. 

The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  that  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Confirmation  confers  the  strengthening 
gift  of  God’s  Holy  Spirit,  and  believes  that  as 
the  laying  on  of  the  Apostles’  hands  was  always 
followed  by  that  Divine  gift,  so  the  imposition 
of  the  Bishop’s  hands  bestows  the  same  blessing. 

The  Articles  of  the  Anglican  Church  set  forth 
that  there  are  but  two  Sacraments,  “ Baptism 
and  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,”  and  that  " Confirma- 
tion, Penance,  Orders,  Matrimony,  and  Extreme 
Unction,  are  not  to  be  counted  for  Sacraments 
of  the  Gospel.”  The  Anglican  ceremony  of 
Confirmation,  which  is  made  a condition  of  Holy 
Communion,  is  therefore  only  an  imitation  of 
the  Sacrament.  Contrary  to  Catholic  usages, 


THE  TERM  “ CATHOLIC  ” 


2 7 


too,  only  those  who  have  been  confirmed  may 
partake  at  the  altar,  as  it  is  only  after  the  cere- 
mony of  Confirmation  that  the  baptized  are 
supposed  to  have  taken  upon  themselves  the 
vows  made  for  them  by  their  sponsors. 

The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  that  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Penance  confers  absolution  from  sins 
committed  after  Baptism;  the  Anglican  Church 
holds  that  there  is  no  such  Sacrament,  and 
though  individual  clergymen  hear  confessions 
in  their  churches  and  utter  a form  of  absolution, 
they  do  so  merely  in  accordance  with  the  Exhorta- 
tion in  the  Communion  Service,  and  without 
any  warrant  from  the  canons  of  their  Church 
to  consider  their  ministry  as  sacramental. 

The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  Transubstantia- 
tion,  but  the  Anglican  Church  merely  Reception- 
ism  (in  the  “ Low  ''  churches)  or  Consubstantia- 
tion  (in  the  “ High  ” churches),  both  shadowy 
and  ineffective  interpretations  of  our  Blessed 
Lord's  intention.* 

The  Church  of  Rome  teaches  that  the  Mass 
is  a true  sacrifice,  the  “ unbloody  Sacrifice  ” 
of  the  new  covenant,  and  that  it  is  a representation 
to  God  of  Christ's  sacrifice  on  Calvary.  The 
Anglican  Church  holds  that  the  “ sacrifices  of 

* This  was  the  case  until  a short  time  ago.  But  see 
Letter  X. — Ed, 


28 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


Masses  " are  “ blasphemous  fables  and  dangerous 
deceits/'  and  though  a small  body  of  the  clergy 
call  their  “ high  celebrations  " “ Masses/'  and 
their  holy  tables  " altars,"  they  have  no  authority 
in  their  Church  for  doing  so,  and  are  directly 
disobedient  to  the  plain  teaching  of  the  Articles 
to  which  they  have  promised  to  adhere. 

I need  not  dilate  on  Anglican  Orders,  but  I 
expect  you  are  aware  that  when  real  Catholic 
tests  were  applied  to  them,  they  were  found 
to  be  invalid;  so  they  too  break  down  as  a witness 
even  to  the  substantial  continuity  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

I was  very  young  when  first  I came  under  the 
influence  of  High  Church  teaching,  and  the 
novelty,  excitement,  and  interest  of  fresh  ideas 
and  practices,  coupled  with  a real  longing  for 
a true  religion,  after  the  insufficiency  and  chilli- 
ness of  Low  Church  teaching,  kept  me  for  a few 
short  years  loyal  to  the  new  movement.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  a sense  of  disillusionment 
and  disappointment  began  to  undermine  its 
influence,  and  a growing  instinct  of  the  unreality 
of  their  pretensions,  rather  than  a reasoned 
disagreement  with  their  principles,  led  me  at 
last  to  break  with  the  High  Anglican  party  for 
ever.  It  was  a true  instinct  which  I followed, 
for  when,  two  years  ago,  I first  began  to  learn 
something  of  the  genuine  Catholic  Church, 


THE  TERM  “ CATHOLIC  ” 


29 


I saw  plainly  the  reasons  of  my  old  discontent.  I 
recognized  the  reality  I had  been  unconsciously 
seeking,  of  which  my  early  teaching  had  been  but 
a spurious  imitation,  bearing  the  same  resemblance 
to  the  truth  as  the  distorted  image  in  a running 
stream  bears  to  the  person  who  looks  into  it. 

Since  my  admission  to  the  one  true  Catholic 
Church  I have  proved  by  experience  that  she 
claims  no  power  that  is  not  really  hers,  she  ad- 
vances no  doctrine  that  she  has  not  definite 
authority  to  proclaim,  she  offers  no  Sacrament 
to  her  children  that  does  not  bestow  on  them 
real  gifts,  and  she  performs  no  rite  that  is  not 
the  outcome  of  a living  faith. 

God  in  man,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  He  cruci- 
fied, is  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  her  doctrine, 
and  the  source  of  all  her  quiet,  unfailing  confidence. 

When  I came  into  the  Church,  each  Sacrament 
as  it  was  bestowed  gave  me  a genuine  sense  of 
benefits  received.  Through  the  purifying  waters 
of  Baptism,  through  the  strengthening  power  of 
Confirmation,  through  the  blessed  words  of 
Absolution,  and,  above  all,  through  the  miraculous 
Eucharistic  Food,  I learned  God’s  true  intentions, 
and  the  glory  and  wonder  of  His  gifts.  I have 
found  the  source  of  all  true  life  and  living.  Can 
you  any  longer  wonder  at  my  “ content  ” ? 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  V 


GOD’S  WAY 

Some  little  time  later  Mr.  Champneys  wrote  to 
Miss  Dunbar  complaining  that,  with  all  the  will 
in  the  world  to  believe,  his  scientific  and  agnostic 
mind  found  the  utmost  difficulty  in  accepting 
the  very  first  tenet  of  Christian  faith — “ that 
God  was  made  man.”  “You  were  right,”  he 
wrote,  “ in  bidding  me  address  myself  to  the 
acquirement  of  faith  on  that  fundamental 
doctrine.  I see  clearly  that  it  is  the  one  thing 
needful,  but  at  present  I find  it  impossible  to 
accept.” 

Dear  Neville, 

Yes,  you  are  quite  right.  To  the  agnostic 
mind  the  initial  fact  of  the  Christian  revelation, 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Word  of  God,  is  the  first 
and  greatest  stumbling-block.  That  God  can 
reveal,  and  has  revealed,  Himself  in  the  form  of 
man  is,  to  such  a mind,  a very  hard  thing  to 
accept. 

I know  so  well  the  difficulty,  for  was  I not 
once  myself  in  the  same  intellectual  position  as 
you  are  in  now  ? 

There  are  learned  theses  on  the  Incarnation 
30 


GOD’S  WAT 


3i 


in  every  Catholic  library,  and  I know  they  can 
help  you  if  you  will  consult  them;  but  since  you 
ask  me  how  I first  overcame  my  doubts,  I will 
try  to  put  before  you  the  very  simple  argument 
that  started  me  upon  the  happy  road  towards 
the  truth. 

I came  to  believe,  as  you  confess  you  do,  in 

design  ” in  Nature,  and  consequently  in  the 
benevolence  of  God. 

But,  like  you,  I rested  there  and  refused  to  take 
the  logical  step  farther  that  would  have  made  me 
a Christian  and  a Catholic  long  ago. 

I use  the  word  logical,  for  rightly  seen,  nothing 
can  be  more  illogical  than  to  believe  in  the  good- 
ness and  love  of  God,  and  to  deny  the  truth  of 
the  Incarnation. 

The  unhappiness  of  the  agnostic  arises  from 
the  dissatisfaction  of  heart  and  mind  in  having 
arrived  at  no  logical  conclusion,  and  therefore 
in  possessing  no  certain  hope. 

Though  we  may  have  the  vision  of  a God  of 
love,  it  is  not  enough.  God  must  come  into  some 
personal  relation  with  us,  or  we  remain  unsatisfied. 

The  cravings  of  the  highest  faculties  must  be 
allayed,  and  they  can  only  be  allayed  by  the 
Truth  of  God. 

The  mind  seeks  rest  in  the  ideal  Wisdom.  The 
heart  looks  for  repose  in  the  ideal  Love  and 


32 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


Beauty.  In  the  wonders  of  creation  we  glimpse 
the  Ideal  that  both  heart  and  mind  desire,  but 
without  the  Incarnation  we  have  no  means  of 
grasping  and  retaining  it.  We  sink  back  ex- 
hausted, and  our  hunger  and  thirst  are  un- 
appeased. What  dust  and  ashes  all  our  worldly 
knowledge  seems  to  us  at  such  a time  ! And 
so  it  is,  and  it  is  only  the  knowledge  of  “ the 
Word  made  Flesh  ” that  can  ever  satisfy  our 
empty  souls. 

The  great  Jesuit,  Fr.  Gerard,  once  wrote: 
“ It  is  our  reason,  and  especially,  as  has  been 
said,  the  argument  it  draws  from  the  facts  of 
conscience,  that  lead  us  to  the  recognition  of 
God,  and  convince  us  that  being,  as  He  must 
be,  supremely  good,  He  has  undoubtedly  pro- 
vided some  means  whereby  we  may  obtain 
that  knowledge  concerning  Him,  an  ineradicable 
craving  for  which  He  has  implanted  in  our  souls 
— some  way  to  Him  accessible  to  all — so  plain 
that  the  wayfarers , though  fools , shall  not  err 
therein ” 

That  is  the  argument  I want  to  speak  of. 

Believing  in  the  goodness  of  the  Supreme  Being, 
I reasoned  that  a God  of  Love  could  not  choose 
to  hide  Himself  for  ever  from  the  creatures  He 
had  made,  since  He  had  given  them  souls  which 
craved  for  Him. 


GOD’S  WAY 


33 


I strove,  as  far  as  my  finite  little  mind  would 
allow,  to  put  myself  in  God’s  place,  even  to 
imagine  myself  the  Creator  of  all  things,  not  only 
of  the  plants,  animals,  stars,  and  seas,  but  of 
the  wonderful  bodies  and  souls  of  men  and 
women. 

I conceived  of  the  love  of  God  as  prompting 
Him  with  limitless  energy  and  infinite  intelligence 
to  produce  these  beings,  and  to  bestow  upon 
them  beauty  and  happiness  and  love. 

But  God,  though  creating,  upholding,  and 
informing  all,  is  a pure  Spirit,  and  in  His  nature 
as  Deity  unable  to  come  in  touch  with  men  by 
any  of  the  signs  they  recognize. 

God  has  no  eyes  to  meet  our  eyes  with  looks 
of  love  and  mercy.  He  has  no  ears  to  bend  to  us 
in  sympathy ; no  lips  to  speak  to  us  in  an  audible 
language  of  our  own ; no  hands  to  show  that  He 
is  blessing  us,  nor  arms  visibly  to  encircle  us 
with  His  protection.  As  God,  He  is  infinitely 
removed  from  men,  and  can  communicate  only 
with  a few  choice  spirits,  more  sensitive  than 
the  rest  to  His  spirit-calls — to  the  still,  small, 
inner  voice — with  which  alone,  as  Spirit,  He  can 
speak  to  us. 

I began  to  realize  that  a God  who  is  Love 
must  be  filled  with  unutterable  yearning  (of 
course,  I speak,  and  can  only  speak,  in  finite 

3 


34 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


terms)  for  full  communion  with  His  loved  ones, 
those  creatures  he  had  been  at  such  pains  to 
make  and  to  render  happy. 

I felt  that  God  must  wish  all  his  conscious 
creatures  to  know  Him,  the  simplest  as  well  as 
the  most  highly  organized,  and  that  He  must 
desire  to  make  Himself  so  clear  to  His  best 
loved  ones,  that  they  should  be  able  to  rise  to 
the  highest  limits  of  their  capacity  in  knowledge 
of,  and  communion  with  Him. 

He  has  made  us  all  in  His  image,  and  as  rivers 
seek  the  ocean,  so  must  we  seek  Him.  Could 
God  for  ever  hide  Himself,  and  never  grant  a 
revelation  such  as  would  be  an  everlasting  beacon 
to  us  in  our  quest  ? 

“ When  God  took  human  flesh,  and  so  seized 
upon  man  in  all  man’s  powers  and  faculties, 
He  made  His  eternal  love  visible  and  palpable.”* 

I began  to  see  that  it  would  be  a denial  of  His 
very  nature  of  love  had  God  shrouded  Himself 
in  darkness,  alienated  from  His  people  by  their 
involuntary  ignorance. 

Not  so  could  we  mortals  treat  the  friends  we 
love  and  who  love  us. 

I saw  how  dim  and  contradictory  were  the 
conceptions  of  God  that  were  formed  by  men. 
Some  said  He  was  kind,  others  thought  Him 

* Bishop  Hedley. 


GOD'S  WAY 


35 


cruel;  some  said  He  did  not  care  what  they  did, 
others  thought  Him  too  exacting.  Men  sinned 
because  they  did  not  know  Him.  They  were 
restless  because  they  could  not  find  Him.  Limit- 
less though  God's  power  is,  as  pure  Spirit  how 
could  He  make  Himself  plainly  seen  and  heard 
of  men  in  ways  to  win  them,  and  not  to  alarm 
and  shock  ? 

Then  what  better  way  of  revealing  Himself 
could  He  have  devised  than  the  way  of  the 
Incarnation  ? What  better  way  than  to  become 
one  with  us  by  being  one  of  us,  clad  in  our  nature, 
sharing  our  sufferings,  serving  us,  helping  us, 
dying  at  last  for  our  sins  ? Could  anything 
compel  our  love  more  forcibly  than  this,  satisfy 
our  longing,  or  be  a more  perfect  revelation  of 
perfect  love  ? As  a father  yourself,  you  know 
how  earnestly  you  desire  that  your  children 
shall  know  you,  understand  you,  trust  you ; 
and  for  this  reason  you  spend  with  them  all  the 
time  that  you  can  spare.  You  talk  to  them, 
teach  them,  express  your  love  to  them,  and  show 
yourself  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  for  their 
sakes.  Is  not  your  love  a faint  picture  of  the 
love  that  expressed  itself  at  Nazareth  and  on 
Calvary  ? 

In  George  Meredith's  touching  story  of  Richard 
Feverel,  alienated  from  his  home,  how  truly  the 


36  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

great  novelist  depicted  the  young  father  hastening 
back  at  the  first  dawning  instinct  of  fatherhood. 
He  must  be  near  his  offspring;  he  longed  to  see 
and  embrace  the  weak  little  creature  who  owed 
its  life  to  him.  How  much  greater  is  the  likeli- 
hood that  He  who  made  us  and  is  Himself  Love 
should  come  seeking  us,  to  caress  and  draw  us 
nearer  to  Himself. 

“ Short  arm  needs  man  to  reach  to  Heaven, 

So  ready  is  Heaven  to  stoop  to  him.” 

And  Heaven  stooped  to  the  manger  and  the 
cross. 

You  may  object  that  God  could  have  chosen 
some  mode  of  revealing  Himself  other  than  in 
the  humble,  obscure  form  of  Jesus. 

“For  Supreme  Spirit  subject  was  to  clay, 

And  Law  from  its  own  servants  learned  a law. 
And  Light  besought  a lamp  unto  its  way. 

And  Awe  was  reined  in  awe 
At  one  small  house  of  Nazareth; 

And  Golgotha 

Saw  Breath  to  breathlessness  resign  its  breath, 
And  Life  do  homage  for  its  crown  to  death.” 

But  would  any  other  way  than  this  have  made  so 
deep  an  impression  on  the  hearts  of  all  ? The 
royal  progress  of  an  acknowledged  king  would 
have  had  no  message  of  consolation  for  the 
suffering,  the  poor,  and  the  tempted;  no  message 


GOD’S  WAY 


37 


of  humility  for  the  proud  and  thoughtless ; no 
message  of  discipline  for  the  self-indulgent  and 
luxurious. 

The  success  of  power  would  have  conveyed  no 
impression  of  self-sacrificing  love.  If  it  attracted 
a few,  it  would  have  repelled  the  multitude.  But 
the  appeal  of  Jesus  is  universal;  it  quenches 
pride,  uplifts  degradation,  glorifies  suffering; 
and  the  virtue  displayed  in  His  pure  and  holy 
life  proclaims  Him  to  us  all  as  something  more 
than  man. 

Such  was  the  simple  line  of  argument  that 
brought  me  to  the  threshold  of  the  Church.  I 
do  not  know  whether  it  will  be  of  any  help  to 
you,  but  I trust  it  may,  even  in  its  simplicity. 
What  followed  I have  told  you  in  my  other 
letters. 

With  best  wishes, 

Believe  me, 

Sincerely  yours, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  VI 


THE  BLESSED  SACRAMENT 

The  simple  logic  of  the  foregoing  letter  seems 
to  have  made  a favourable  impression,  for  in 
his  subsequent  letters  Mr.  Champneys  refers  to 
the  Incarnation  as  a " very  probable  fact.” 
He  at  first  experienced  a difficulty  in  grasping 
the  personal  appeal  of  the  Incarnation,  “ since 
it  all  happened  such  a long  time  ago.” 

Some  time  later,  however,  Mr.  Champneys 
made  his  submission  to  the  Church,  and  he 
afterwards  traced  the  dawn  of  faith  to  the 
arguments  set  forth  in  the  following  letter. 

This  is  the  last  of  Miss  Dunbar’s  letters  to 
Mr.  Champneys  that,  for  the  purpose  of  this 
series,  it  is  necessary  to  quote. 

Dear  Neville, 

You  say  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  any 
personal  relation  with  the  Incarnation  because 
“ it  all  happened  so  long  ago.”  Why  ! God  is 
revealing  Himself  in  our  Blessed  Lord  all  the  time. 
Every  day  and  all  day  long  the  Word  is  Incarnate 
and  dwells  among  us  in  the  Church  for  which 
He  died. 

This  is  what  I meant  when  I said  in  a previous 
38 


THE  BLESSED  SACRAMENT 


39 

letter  that  the  Sacraments  of  the  Catholic  Church 
are  real  Sacraments. 

When  our  Lord  was  on  the  point  of  leaving 
His  disciples,  He  said:  “ I go  away,  but  I will 
come  again  unto  you,”  and  He  kept  His  promise. 
He  came  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament  of  His  love, 
and  He  has  been  with  us  ever  since. 

“ The  Blessed  Sacrament  is  the  prolongation, 
as  far  as  human  faculties  are  concerned,  of  the 
Incarnation.”  * 

Oh  ! it  is  true  you  need  faith  to  believe  it, 
but  once  a sufficient  faith  is  granted,  all  lingering 
doubts  are  swept  away  by  the  tide  of  peace  and 
joy  that  rises  in  the  soul  adoring  before  the 
Tabernacle. 

If  our  Blessed  Lord,  when  He  left  this  earth, 
had  remained  high  in  heaven  apart  from  the 
Bride  for  whom  He  died,  is  it  possible  that  she 
could  have  supported  the  weight  of  the  centuries, 
the  oppression  of  her  enemies,  and  the  weakness 
of  her  own  children  ? 

If  she  had  not  had  within  her  the  life  of  her 
glorious  Spouse,  could  she  have  risen  ever  fresh 
and  spotless  from  the  grave,  that  grave  dug 
for  her  time  and  again  by  the  wicked  ones  of  this 
world  ? 

The  Gospels,  with  their  wonderful  story,  might 
* Bishop  Hedley. 


40 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


have  become  a dead  letter  long  since  if  our  Lord 
had  not  remained  in  His  Church,  a living  witness 
to  their  truth. 

If  you  have  reached  that  point  where  you  can 
accept  Jesus  Christ  as  the  promised  revelation 
of  God  to  men,  you  cannot  be  far  from  accepting 
the  great  miracle  of  His  love.  If  you  have 
seen  God  under  the  veil  of  flesh,  you  are  not  far 
from  the  vision  of  God  beneath  the  sacramental 
veils  of  bread  and  wine. 

“ The  bread  that  I will  give  is  My  flesh,  which 
I will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world.” 

" He  that  eateth  My  flesh,  and  drinketh  My 
blood,  dwelleth  in  Me,  and  I in  him.” 

These  were  hard  words  even  for  those  who 
loved  Him  best  to  accept.  But  at  the  last 
supper,  before  He  suffered,  they  were  fully 
explained. 

Oh  ! if  we  could  but  grasp  the  love  of  that 
Sacred  Heart,  craving  to  suffer  for  its  loved 
ones,  how  easy  we  should  find  it  to  believe  in 
the  Presence  on  the  altar.  That  Heart  of  Love 
could  not  leave  us  comfortless,  could  not  be 
satisfied  with  Its  throne  in  the  heavens,  unless 
It  could  be  also  present  on  the  earth  with  us. 

“ Ecce  panis  angel  orum 
Factus  cibus  viatorum : 

Vere  panis  filiorum, 

Non  mittendus  cantons.” 


THE  BLESSED  SACRAMENT 


4i 


The  human  heart  of  Jesus  is  the  focus,  as  it 
were,  of  the  entire  love  of  God.  “ The  Blessed 
Sacrament  is  the  principal  means  on  earth  of 
union  with  God.”  * 

We  cannot  fathom  the  heights  and  depths  of 
that  condescension.  We  can  only  obtain  the 
dimmest  notion  of  the  Divine  Love  in  the  hearts 
of  our  parents  and  our  friends.  We  see  it  most 
clearly  revealed  in  the  depths  of  humiliation  to 
which  Jesus  stooped  to  win  us. 

Yet  how  incomplete  would  His  work  have  been 
if  He  had  not  devised  a means  of  bringing  it 
home  to  the  hearts  of  each  successive  generation 
of  men  and  women.  No  study  of  past  deeds 
of  love  could  enchain  their  hearts,  and  win  them 
from  the  world  and  self. 

The  Mass,  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  the  Holy 
Eucharist,  these  were  God’s  inventions  for  the 
continuance  of  His  work  among  us.  “ Whatever 
the  Passion  did  or  does,  the  Mass  can  do.  We 
must  look  upon  the  Mass,  therefore,  as  nothing 
less  than  the  Sacrifice  of  Calvary,  so  per- 
formed as  to  be  more  perfectly  applicable  to 
individual  souls.”  f 

Only  the  immediate  Presence  of  our  Blessed 
Lord  in  our  midst  could  act  as  a lever  powerful 


* Bishop  Hedley. 
t Bishop  lledley. 


42 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


enough  to  raise  our  earth-bound  hearts  into 
union  with  the  mighty  Heart  of  God. 

The  Sacraments  of  the  Church  do  not  merely 
remind  us  of  our  Lord,  do  not  merely  revive  in 
us  a lingering  love  for  a Redeemer  who  has 
long  since  passed  from  earth.  The  Church  is 
the  mystic  Body  of  the  Saviour,  bound  to  Him 
by  the  Communion  of  His  flesh  and  blood.  It 
is  His  life  that  flows  in  her  veins,  His  words 
that  are  heard  on  her  lips,  His  acts  that  are 
performed  by  her.  If  she  suffers,  she  fills  up 
what  is  wanting  in  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 

It  is  true  that  her  members  may  forget  their 
holy  alliance,  and  of  themselves  act  contrarily 
to  His  Will.  They  may  cut  themselves  away 
from  the  Body  of  their  Lord,  but  penitent, 
they  may  also  be  restored  to  It  by  one  touch 
of  His  precious  Blood. 

Another  point:  do  not  be  afraid  of  Catholic 
ritual,  and  judge  it  inappropriate  to  the  simplicity 
of  Nazareth.  We  should  not  give  a beggar’s 
place  to  the  king  who  came  to  us  disguised  as 
a beggar  for  some  loving  purpose.  Should  we 
not  rather  load  him  with  greater  honour,  sur- 
rounding him  with  all  that  would  be  in  accord- 
ance with  his  real  state  ? The  King  of  Kings 
came  disguised  as  a carpenter’s  son,  but  we, 
who  are  in  His  secret,  must  needs  lavish  our 


THE  BLESSED  SACRAMENT 


43 


best  upon  Him.  The  stone  rejected  by  the 
builders  is  our  Head  Corner  Stone,  binding  us 
all  together  into  a beautiful  house  of  God,  and 
our  ritual  is  the  expression  of  our  wish  to  do  Him 
honour. 

You  will  remember  that  a name  we  prize  is  the 
name  Emmanuel:  God  with  us.  That  is  a name 
we  can  use  with  the  utmost  truth  and  certainty 
when  Holy  Church  unites  us  to  her  ever-present 
Lord  and  King. 

“ I saw  the  throng,  so  deeply  separate, 

Fed  at  one  only  board; 

***** 

A thousand,  single  central  daisies  they, 

A thousand  of  the  One; 

For  each  the  entire  monopoly  of  Day; 

For  each,  the  whole  of  the  devoted  Sun.” 

I pray  that  I may  yet  have  the  happiness  of 
knowing  you  a sharer  in  that  “ Day  ” and  in 
that  “ Sun.” 

Believe  me, 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  VII 


^ , ^££GLICAN  COMPROMISE 

The  i^Urr^thg  four  letters  were  addressed  to 
young  Welsh  friend,  Miss  Katherine  Evans, 
who  had  been  brought  up  as  a 'Wesleyan 
Methodist,  but  finding  little  satisfaction  in  her 
Church  and  its  modes  of  worship,  confessed  in 
a letter  to  Miss  Dunbar  her  determination  to 
become  a member  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Miss  Dunbar,  knowing  well  * the  impulsive, 
ardent  temperament  of  her  Celtic  friend/ warns 
her  in  this  letter  against  over-haste,  and  the 
imprudence  of  joining  without  sufficient  know- 
ledge a Church  which  could  never  satisfy  her 
real  needs. 

My  dear  Katherine, 

Your  letter  has  not  surprised  me  in  the 
least.  For  a long  time  I have  felt  that  you  must 
one  day  become  dissatisfied  with  your  position. 
You  are  too  intelligent  and  too  thorough,  too 
warm-hearted  and  too  much  of  a Celt,  perhaps, 
to  be  perfectly  contented  with  the  meagre  modes 
of  worship  which  are  the  usage  of  your  Church. 

But  I do  entreat  you  “ to  hasten  slowly.” 
You  have  consulted  the  Vicar,  and  have  read 

44 


ANGLICAN  COMPROMISE 


45 


several  books  about  the  Church  of  England,  and 
you  are  convinced  that  the  well-ordered  services, 
the  greater  refinement  and  scholarship  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  more  frequent  and  dignified 
administration  of  the  Sacraments  are  precisely 
what  you  have  been  seeking. 

Frankly,  I do  not  believe  you,  my  dear  ! 
You  are  seeking  something  far  less  superficial, 
far  more  deeply  vital  to  your  life. 

If  you  will  admit  it,  your  real  craving  is  for  a 
full  and  conscious  union  with  God.  You  are 
not  strong  enough — as,  indeed,  who  is  ? — to 
sustain  that  high  “ spiritual  communion  ” with 
Him  about  which  many  Nonconformists  speak — 
with  little  understanding — unaided  by  those 
Sacraments  which  God  Himself,  well  aware  of 
our  frailty,  has  ordained.  I feel  sure  I am  right. 
Your  love-feasts  and  your  prayer- meetings 
demand  a continual  giving  out,  a certain  drain 
and  strain  upon  mental  and  spiritual  capacity, 
while  you  are  cut  off  from  the  supply  of  heavenly 
food  God  purposed  we  should  all  receive.  It  is 
not  the  more  frequent  and  more  dignified  ad- 
ministration of  the  Sacraments  you  long  for, 
but  the  Sacraments  themselves.  But  will  the 
Church  you  seek  to  enter  give  you  what  you 
need  ? 

For  a time  your  aesthetic  sense  will  be  gratified 


46  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


and  flattered,  but  your  poor  thirsty  soul  will 
be  thirsty  still  ! And  the  old  discontent  and 
restlessness  will  have  found  no  balm. 

It  is  the  reality  and  not  a compromise  that  you 
are  pining  for,  and  my  own  experience  warns 
me  you  are  courting  disappointment. 

Shall  I tell  you  something  of  that  experience  ? 
It  may  show  you  more  distinctly  what  I fear 
for  you. 

I was  brought  up  in  the  Church  of  England, 
as  you  know,  in  a parish  whose  Vicar  was  a 
gentleman  of  the  old  school,  and  of  Broad  Church 
“ views/’  I was  by  nature  inclined  to  be  a 
religious  child,  but  I positively  detested  going 
to  church,  and  God  seemed  nearest  to  me  when 
I was  allowed  to  wander  by  myself  in  my  grand- 
father’s fields  and  garden,  picking  flowers,  listen- 
ing to  the  songs  of  the  birds,  and  watching  the 
bees  drowsily  humming  round  their  old  straw 
hives.  There,  in  the  quiet  country,  I could 
put  out  my  little  hand  and  believe  God  took  it 
in  His  own  and  walked  with  me,  and  I sang  with 
glee  in  the  sunshine  and  my  innocent  assurance 
of  His  smile. 

But  the  church  to  which  I was  taken  every 
Sunday  in  my  best  clothes  seemed  like  a prison- 
house,  where  it  was  a penance  to  spend  even  a 
single  hour. 


ANGLICAN  COMPROMISE 


47 


At  fifteen  I was  prepared  for  Confirmation, 
but  all  I can  recollect  of  the  instruction  I received 
pointed  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  I was  about  to 
take  upon  my  own  small  shoulders  all  the  solemn 
vows  made  for  me  by  my  sponsors  at  my  Baptism, 
with  but  scant  assurance  that  I was  to  receive 
any  special  grace  for  the  undertaking. 

The  beautiful  cathedral  in  which  it  was  made 
rendered  my  first  Communion  for  ever  memorable, 
but  as  I had  been  taught  that  it  was  merely 
a memorial  of  Christ,  and  that  it  would  help  me 
only  in  so  far  as  I had  my  thoughts  attuned 
to  the  holy  service,  I wondered  vaguely  why  it 
was  called  a Communion,  since  I could  commune 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  anywhere  and  at 
any  time. 

In  short,  I was  taught  a sober,  respectable 
religion,  which  never  once  touched  and  fired 
my  childish  imagination,  nor  called  out  one  spark 
of  the  enthusiastic  affection  I lavished  on  my 
parents  and  friends. 

Later,  coming  under  High  Church  influences, 
I learned  more,  and  greedily  drank  in  the 
Anglican  form  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence 
in  the  Eucharist. 

I saw  that  many,  whose  opinion  I valued  and 
whose  lives  I admired,  believed  it,  and  eager  as 
I was  to  welcome  a teaching  which  appeared  to 


48  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


afford  a deeper  reality  of  worship,  I began  to 
go  frequently  to  confession  and  communion. 
Neither  of  these  practices  as  performed  in  the 
Anglican  Church,  however,  gave  me  the  peace 
and  satisfaction  I expected,  and,  as  was  inevitable, 
with  the  first  chill  of  feeling  I began  to  seek  for 
a more  solid  basis  for  my  faith.  I strove  to 
gain  an  intellectual  grasp  of  my  position.  I 
grew  doubtful,  and  spoke  of  my  doubts  to  my 
Vicar  and  other  responsible  people.  They  met 
me  with  looks  of  horror,  with  impatient  shrugs, 
with  sorrowful  exhortations,  but  with  no  real 
help.  No  clear,  intellectual  solutions  of  my 
difficulties,  such  as  Cardinal  Newman’s  “ Develop- 
ment of  Christian  Doctrine  ” would  have  afforded, 
were  ever  put  before  me,  nor  any  convincing 
record  of  spiritual  experience,  such  as  I should 
have  found  in  the  lives  and  writings  of  the 
Saints.  I was  bidden  to  believe  without  question 
in  Christ’s  spiritual  Presence  in  the  Eucharist — 
that  is,  in  Consubstantiation,  though  not  in  Tran- 
substantiation;  I was  told  to  bow  to  an  empty 
altar,  and  to  call  the  Church  of  England  Catholic  ! 

The  so-called  Sacrament  of  Penance,  admin- 
istered by  the  Anglican  clergy,  good  and  holy 
men  though  I knew  them  to  be,  seemed  intoler- 
ably embarrassing,  and  I derived  from  it  the 
least  possible  consolation  and  help. 


ANGLICAN  COMPROMISE 


49 


You  cannot  imagine,  dear  Katherine,  all  the 
misery  of  those  years.  They  ended  in  a com- 
plete severance  from  the  Anglican  Communion 
and  a total  disbelief  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son 
of  God.  I became  I know  not  what,  for  after 
that  sad  time  I was  blown  about  by  “ many  a 
wind  of  doctrine/'  following  now  this  philosopher, 
now  that;  for  a time  a Deist,  then  a Rationalist, 
later  almost  a Pantheist;  but  a Christian  in  the 
true  sense  I believed  I should  never  be  again. 

Such  was  my  experience  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  and  I know  it  is  not  unlike  the  experience 
of  hundreds  of  really  earnest  people  who  are 
now  either  openly  unbelievers,  or  may  be  still, 
but  only  nominally,  Anglicans.  They  looked 
for  bread  and  have  received  a stone. 

Oh  ! how  I wish  both  you  and  they  might 
find  the  way  to  that  fair  house  where  there  is 
a table  spread  for  all,  and  where  those  who  pass 
in  and  out  are  filled  with  the  true  peace  of  God. 

I am,  as  ever, 

Your  affectionate 

Louise. 


4 


LETTER  VIII 
“ MY  FIRST  MASS  ” 

Miss  Evans  replied  to  the  foregoing  with  a 
request  that  Miss  Dunbar  would  tell  her  some- 
thing of  Catholic  belief  and  practice.  She 
acknowledged  that  her  friend’s  letter  had  deterred 
her  from  taking  any  hasty  step  in  the  direction 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  announced  her 
intention  of  making  a complete  study  of  the 
methods  and  beliefs  of  both  Churches  before 
coming  to  any  final  decision. 

In  the  following  letter  Miss  Dunbar  bears 
witness  to  the  reality  of  the  Catholic  Sacraments, 
a reality  which  her  own  experience  had  con- 
vincingly proved  to  her. 

My  dear  Katherine, 

I am  so  glad  to  know  that  my  last  letter 
has,  at  least,  given  you  pause  before  taking  the 
serious  step  you  contemplate. 

Now  you  ask  me  to  tell  you  something  of  my 
experience  of  the  true  Church.  Catholics  are 
so  often  accused  of  proselytizing  by  fair  means 
and  foul,  that  I should  hesitate  to  speak  of  the 
wonderful  things  I know,  if  I did  not  feel  quite  sure 
that  you  are  sincerely  anxious  to  arrive  at  the  truth. 
50 


“ MY  FIRST  MASS  ” 


5i 


One  day,  some  time  before  my  conversion, 
wishing  to  show  a Catholic  friend  an  example 
of  an  Anglican  Church  where  the  most  advanced 

ritual  is  observed,  I took  her  into  St.  J ’s. 

The  church  is  profusely  decorated  with  pictures, 
Stations  of  the  Cross,  and  statues  of  Our  Lady 
and  the  Saints.  Turning  to  my  friend,  I asked 
her:  “ Would  you  know  that  you  are  not  in  a 
Catholic  church  ?”  “Yes,”  she  rejoined  quickly, 
looking  towards  the  altar;  “ there  is  no  taber- 
nacle !”  * No,  there  was  no  tabernacle,  no 
place  of  repose  in  that  over-decorated  church 
for  that  which  is  the  centre  of  all  Catholic 
devotion — I mean  the  Blessed  Sacrament  of  the 
Altar — the  consecrated  Host  ! 

In  every  Catholic  church  there  is  a taber- 
nacle in  which  the  consecrated  Host  is  always 
preserved,  and  where  the  Host  is,  there,  we 
believe,  in  a very  special  and  real  sense  is  our 
Blessed  Lord  ; in  as  special  and  as  real  a sense 
as  when  He  was  visibly  present  and  worked 
miracles  in  Galilee. 

When  first  I heard  of  this,  and  that  Catholics 
make  a practice  of  paying  visits  to  our  Lord 
in  their  churches,  it  seemed  to  me  a beautiful 
but  preposterous  idea.  “ There  could  be  no 
real  warrant,”  I told  myself,  “ for  this  strange 

* This  was  in  1911. — L.  D. 


52 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


belief  and  practice.  It  was  a pure  figment  of 
the  imagination  to  suppose  that  the  glorious 
God  of  heaven  was  lying,  passive  and  hidden,  in 
a little  disc  in  every  tabernacle,  on  the  altars 
of  every  Catholic  church  throughout  the  world. 
Such  a belief  was  a fatuous  obsession  of  the 
intellect ; the  mind  created  the  effects  it  desired 
to  produce.  The  God  of  the  Catholics  was  a 
man-made  fetish,  and  the  Man  Jesus,  who 
could  teach  such  nonsense,  a self-deluded  fanatic.” 

Not  only  was  I a non-Catholic,  I had  lost  even 
the  last  shreds  of  Christian  faith.  Unbelief 
could  go  no  further,  could  reach  no  more  pro- 
found nor  more  appalling  depths,  and  my  harsh 
thoughts  were  the  harsher  because  I found  no 
happiness  in  my  state  of  doubt,  and  somehow, 
the  poor  deluded  worshippers  seemed  immensely 
joyful  and  satisfied. 

It  was  in  this  condition  of  mind  that  one  day 
I accompanied  a friend  to  Mass.  The  service, 
with  all  its  stately  ceremonial,  touched  me,  but 
I steeled  myself  against  the  betrayal  of  emotion, 
and  the  sensuous  appeal  of  music  and  of  lights, 
of  flowers  and  of  incense.  I defied  any  of  these 
things  to  move  me,  but  something  else  did. 
Just  as  God  was  not  in  the  fire  nor  in  the  whirl- 
wind, but  spoke  to  His  servant  in  “a  still, 
small  voice,”  so  it  was  as  I knelt  at  that  Mass. 


" MY  FIRST  MASS  “ 


53 


The  brilliant  externals  of  the  service  had  no 
power  to  produce  in  me  anything  more  than 
a passing  sensation  of  delight;  but  in  the  midst 
of  the  mysterious  rite,  at  the  moment  of  the 
elevation,  some  long-forgotten  words  of  our 
Lord  came  pouring  into  my  mind,  and  with  a 
flash  of  sudden  insight  I was  revealed  to  myself 
as  I appeared  before  God.  Many  of  our  Lord’s 
sayings  came  rushing  to  my  recollection, 
illuminating,  convincing,  compelling  me  to  ac- 
knowledge Him,  while  terrifying  me  with  a 
vivid  picture  of  my  own  desolate  position.  It 
was  as  though  a voice  warned  me  that  I was 
taking  part  in  a service  from  which  I must 
expect  no  benefit,  I was  at  a feast  in  which  I 
was  privileged  to  take  no  share,  at  a court  where 
I was  a stranger,  in  the  presence  of  a King  to 
whom  I had  no  letters  of  recommendation,  and 
before  whom  I had  hastily  appeared  in  a travel- 
ling dress  that  was  soiled  and  torn. 

I scarcely  knew  how  to  remain  in  my  place, 
or  to  restrain  my  emotion,  for  behind  the  terrific 
warning  I was  intensely  conscious  of  a note  of 
pleading  in  the  Divine  voice,  and  even  then  and 
there  I longed  to  fling  aside  every  consideration, 
to  ignore  every  doubt,  and  to  cast  myself  into 
the  arms  of  compassion  that  were  being  stretched 
out  to  me. 


54 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


The  Mass  proceeded,  calmer  thoughts  followed,, 
mingled  with  a little  impatience  at  my  own 
too-eager  impulses,  but  from  that  hour  I was  at 
heart  a Catholic.  My  intellect  craved  a calmly 
reasoned  basis  for  faith,  my  will  refused  sub- 
mission to  any  hastily-drawn  conclusions,  but 
I had  had  a glimpse  of  the  glorious  realities  of 
Catholic  worship,  and  I sought  diligently  to 
strengthen  those  first  vivid  impressions.  I began 
to  frequent  the  churches,  and  as  I knelt  before 
the  tabernacle  I invariably  received  from  the 
hidden  Presence  there  some  admonition  or 
assurance,  some  fresh  illumination  of  my  many 
doubts  and  difficulties,  until  at  last  God  perfected 
the  grace  of  faith  in  me  and  I was  admitted  to 
the  Church. 

If  it  be  true  that  Christ  is  on  the  altars 
of  the  Church  of  England,  how  was  it  that,  even 
when  I was  in  full  communion  with  that  Church, 
I never  received  any  such  clear  and  certain 
illumination  as  came  pouring  into  my  darkened 
consciousness  as  I knelt  afar  off  in  unbelief 
before  the  closed  tabernacles  of  the  Catholic 
Church  ? 

How  was  it  that  even  in  the  most  solemn 
moments  of  participation  in  Anglican  rites  no 
genuine  conviction  of  communion  with  our  Lord 
had  ever  thrilled  my  soul  ? I sought  for  it, 


" MY  FIRST  MASS  ” 


55 


prepared  for  it,  craved  for  it,  but  it  never  came, 
and  an  ever-increasing  sense  of  disappointment 
and  unrest  drove  me  at  last  to  unbelief. 

I do  not  attempt  to  answer  these  questions, 
but  I know  that  they  occur  to  every  convert 
from  the  Anglican  Church;  I know  that  I am 
voicing  the  experience  of  hundreds  of  weary 
seekers  who  are  sick  at  heart  with  unsatisfied 
longing. 

An  abiding  assurance  of  the  Presence  of  their 
Blessed  Lord  is  to  Catholics  the  secret  of  all  their 
joy,  the  source  of  all  their  confidence,  and  the 
pledge  of  that  Divine  Authority  which  the  Catholic 
Church  appears  to  the  outside  world  so  pre- 
sumptuous in  claiming. 

There  is  a strange  diversity  of  opinion,  ambi- 
guity of  teaching,  chaos,  and  instability  in  the 
National  Church,  which,  if  you  enter  it,  you  must 
soon  discover. 

The  Low  Church  party  has  practically  no 
real  sacramental  teaching,  the  Broad  Church 
party  very  little  more,  while  the  High  Church 
party  holds  tenets  which  are  neither  Catholic 
nor  Anglican,  and  its  services  appear  as  a challenge 
to  Rome  on  the  one  hand,  and  as  a protest 
against  non-ritualistic  Anglicanism  on  the  other. 

The  quiet  peace,  born  of  conviction,  is  absent 
from  all;  but  it  broods  undisturbed  over  those 


56  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


hallowed  places — bare  chapels,  or  gorgeous 
cathedrals — where  the  worshippers  at  Mass  thrill 
to  the  life-bestowing  touch  of  their  risen  Lord. 

I could  write  much  more,  dear  Katherine, 
but  I have  said  enough  to  show  you  that  there 
is  indeed  a reality  of  faith  and  worship  in  the 
Catholic  Church  that  you  will  never  find  else- 
where. 

Ever  your  loving 

Louise. 


LETTER  IX 


“ TAKE  UP  AND  READ,  TAKE  UP 
AND  READ  ” 

Miss  Evans  was  greatly  impressed  by  Miss 
Dunbar’s  relation  of  her  experiences,  and  ex- 
pressed an  earnest  wish  to  know  more;  but  the 
latter,  feeling  rightly  that  personal  influence 
might  easily  play  too  large  a part  in  the  conversion 
of  one  of  Miss  Evans’s  impulsive  temperament, 
abstained  from  any  further  mention  of  her  own 
experiences,  and  the  following  letter  is  simply 
an  urgent  plea  that  her  friend  would  apply  her- 
self to  a course  of  Catholic  reading.  The  letter 
may  be  of  some  general  interest,  as  the  point 
it  insists  on  is  one  that  many  who  are  alienated 
from  the  Church  would  do  well  to  consider. 

My  dear  Katherine, 

You  are  drawing  nearer  and  nearer  to  a 
true  conception  of  the  Catholic  faith,  but  you 
will  be  wise  to  move  very  slowly  and  to  guard 
against  being  led  by  impulse  and  emotion. 
Emotion  is,  of  course,  essential  to  all  true  religion, 
but  it  must  be  restrained,  for,  unless  you  lay 
firm  foundations  for  your  faith,  you  will  not  know 
how  to  meet  the  doubts  which  may  arise  later, 

57 


58  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

and  the  criticisms  to  which  you  will  certainly 
be  exposed.  You  must  not  build  too  much 
on  what  you  know  of  my  experiences,  nor  even 
upon  the  evidence  of  your  own.  You  must  go 
much  deeper,  and  acquire  all  the  knowledge  you 
can  of  the  Church  and  her  inception,  of  her 
doctrines,  her  rites,  her  history,  and  her  saints. 
The  stud}?  is  worthy  of  your  best  attention, 
and  though  you  cannot  by  study  “ find  out 
God,”  and  you  must  pray  far  more  than  you  read, 
you  will  find  that  books  will  arm  you  as  nothing 
else  can  to  meet  the  false  ideas  of  your  Protestant 
friends,  and  the  intellectual  difficulties  which 
may  assail  you.  The  voice  that  spoke  to  St. 
Augustine  bade  him:  “Take  up  and  read,  take 
up  and  read,”  and  our  Lord  Himself  advised  the 
doubters  to  “ search  the  Scriptures  ” (the  litera- 
ture of  the  Jewish  Church),  “ for  they  are  they 
which  testify  of  Me.” 

There  is  an  unaccountable  reluctance  to  read 
Catholic  literature  on  the  part  of  many  Anglicans 
and  Nonconformists.  They  condemn  the  Church, 
and  make  all  sorts  of  strange  statements  concern- 
ing her,  while  they  resolutely  refuse  to  open 
a Catholic  book  and  find  out  the  truth  ! 

They  accuse  her  of  Formalism,  because  they 
will  not  take  the  trouble  to  discover  the  meaning 
of  her  ceremonies. 


“ TAKE  UP  AND  READ  ” 


59 


They  believe  she  is  superstitious,  because  they 
are  at  no  pains  to  inquire  into  her  faith  and  its 
origins. 

They  attribute  to  her  a retrogressive  policy  ^ 
because  they  will  not  touch  her  publications  and 
learn  what  her  policy  really  is  ! 

It  is  quite  otherwise  with  Catholics.  Educated 
Catholics  frequently  read  non-Catholic  literature 
for  the  express  purpose  of  understanding  their 
adversaries  better. 

What  is  it  that  hinders  Protestants  from 
reading  the  works  of  Catholic  writers,  that  so 
they  may  acquire  a true  knowledge  of  the  Church 
against  which  they  bring  so  many  accusations  ? 
Is  it  dread  of  contamination  ? or  is  it  an  unspoken, 
half-defined  fear  of  discovering  that  the  poor, 
despised  Church  of  Rome  is  in  possession  of  the 
truth  after  all  ? 

If  the  Catholic  Church  is  so  sadly  in  the 
wrong,  a more  thorough  knowledge  of  her  might 
be  desirable,  if  only  in  order  to  bring  about 
her  overthrow  ! 

If  her  writers  are  such  arrant  perverters  of 
the  truth  as  many  Protestants  appear  to  believe, 
surely  a more  perfect  acquaintance  with  their 
statements  might  be  useful  for  the  purpose  of 
meeting  and  confuting  them. 

But  what  do  we  find  ? If  a calumniator  of 


6o 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


the  Church  is  asked  if  he  or  she  has  read  any 
Catholic  literature,  the  reply  is  invariably  a 
negative.  Among  your  friends  I do  not  suppose 
that  you  could  find  one  who  has  ever  entered  a 
Catholic  church,  or  ever  read  a Catholic  book, 
or  who  has  ever  inquired  of  a Catholic  priest 
what  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  the  Church 
really  are. 

One  Protestant  tells  another  that  this  or  that 
horrible  thing  is  done  or  believed  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  so  the  mischief  grows.  The  in- 
justice is  obvious,  but  besides,  such  ignorance 
is  a serious  hindrance  to  the  illumination  of  many 
a starving  soul. 

You  already  know  too  much  of  the  beauty  and 
truth  of  the  Church  to  allow  yourself  to  be 
influenced  by  this  unfair  spirit  of  prejudiced 
antagonism,  and  you  will,  I hope,  make  a point 
of  reading  some,  at  least,  of  the  great  works 
of  Catholic  writers,  that  you  may  gain  such  a 
complete  knowledge  of  Catholicism  as  shall 
serve  to  build  up  your  faith  on  an  unshakable 
foundation,  and  also  furnish  you  with  irrefutable 
arguments  with  which  to  meet  Protestant 
objectors. 

Cardinal  Newman,  Cardinal  Wiseman,  Arch- 
bishop Ullathorne,  Canon  Barry,  Mr.  C.  S.  Devas, 
Fr.  Humphrey,  Mgr.  Benson,  and  the  “ Lives 


" TAKE  UP  AND  READ  ” 


61 


of  the  Saints/'  all  have  their  own  particular 
lessons  to  teach,  lessons  that  will  open  your 
eyes,  widen  your  outlook,  and  expand  your  soul 
as  nothing  else  can  ever  do. 

At  the  end  of  such  a course  of  study  as  I 
propose  you  will  find  that  you  have  not  only 
gained  a truer  insight  into  the  spirit  and  aims  of 
the  Church,  but,  and  consequent  upon  this,, 
you  will  have  acquired  an  altogether  new  light 
on  the  life  and  mission  of  our  Blessed  Lord. 
You  will  detect  without  difficulty  the  fallacies 
and  half-truths  contained  in  the  doctrine  of  other 
bodies  of  Christians,  and  you  will  realize  how  poor 
and  meagre  is  their  conception  of  the  Gospel 
truths,  which  are  taught  in  all  their  magnificent 
fulness  only  by  the  Catholic  Church. 

If  you  have  any  difficulty  in  procuring  books, 
do  let  me  know,  and  I will  put  you  in  touch  with 
a good  library,  or  borrow  from  my  friends  the 
volumes  you  require. 

God  bless  you,  dear  Katherine,  in  your  search 
for  truth. 

Your  ever  affectionate 

Louise. 


LETTER  X 


" AN  IMMENSE  CHASM  ” 

Subsequently,  Miss  Evans  came  into  the 
Church.  She  learned  later  from  certain  High 
Church  friends  that  the  “ advanced  party  ” in 
the  English  Church  had  adopted  practically  the 
whole  of  the  Catholic  teaching,  including  Tran- 
substantiation,  and  she  wrote  to  her  friend  about 
the  matter. 

Miss  Dunbar’s  reply  is  the  latest  letter  cf  the 
series,  and  will  be  found  to  contain  the  Catholic 
estimate  of  the  " advanced  ” dogma  of  the 
English  Church. 

My  dear  Katherine, 

You  tell  me  that  the  High  Church  party 
in  the  Church  of  England  now  repudiates  the 
doctrine  of  Consubstantiation,  and,  though  rather 
with  the  connivance  than  with  the  approval 
of  the  Bishops,  teaches  Transubstantiation  pure 
and  simple. 

Since  receiving  your  letter  I have  visited  one 
or  two  “ high  ” churches  in  this  neighbourhood; 
I have  also  read  some  of  the  Anglican  newspapers, 
and  I see  that  you  are  right.  I found  in  the 
churches  tabernacles  similar  to  those  in  “ ours,” 

62 


“ AN  IMMENSE  CHASM  ” 


63 


curtained  and  with  a lamp  or  lamps  burning. 

I found  the  Anima  Christi  printed  on  leaflets  in 
the  pews ; I saw  confessionals  in  the  corners ; stray 
parishioners  passing  in  and  out  genuflected 
towards  the  tabernacle  just  as  we  do. 

But  to  what  do  they  genuflect  ? To  what  ? 
Can  our  Lord  possibly  be  in  those  tabernacles  ? 
Why,  He  was  banished  from  the  “ holy  tables  ” 
of  the  Church  of  England  at  the  Reformation, 
and  what  change  has  taken  place  since  then 
that  He  should  now  return  ? 

Before  the  Reformation  " the  grand  old  churches 
were  the  majestic  tabernacles  of  the  Word  made 
Flesh.  Jesus  dwelt  there  in  the  Divine  Mystery 
of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  . . . Does  anyone  know 
the  name  of  the  man  who  removed  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  from  the  Cathedral  of  Canterbury,  or 
from  York  Minster  ? Is  it  written  in  history  ? 
Or  is  it  blotted  out  from  the  knowledge  of  men, 
and  known  only  to  God  and  His  holy  angels  ? 

. . . We  cannot  know.  . . . But  a change 
which  held  both  on  earth  and  in  heaven  had 
been  accomplished.  Canterbury  and  York  went 
on  the  day  after  as  the  day  before.  But  the 
Light  of  Life  had  gone  out  of  them.”  * And 
what  was  true  of  Canterbury  and  York  was  true 
of  every  reformed  church  throughout  the  land. 


* Cardinal  Manning. 


64  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


From  henceforth  a memorial  service  took  the 
place  ol  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  and  bread 
and  wine  were  eaten  and  drunk  merely  in  memory 
of  Jesus.  Yet  in  these  same  churches,  where  a 
purely  Protestant  multitude  once  carelessly  dusted 
the  crumbs  of  the  memorial  bread  from  their 
fingers,  and  wiped  the  memorial  wine  from  their 
lips,  is  now  offered  a so-called  Mass,  in  which 
the  wafer  bread  is  held  to  be  the  true  Body  of 
Jesus,  and  the  unfermented  wine  His  holy 
Blood. 

But  where  then  has  He  been  hiding,  our 
Blessed  Lord,  that  He  is  only  now,  in  these  latter 
days,  to  be  found  in  bodily  Presence  in  the 
English  Church  ? What  change  in  the  Ordina- 
tion service  of  that  Church  makes  her  clergy  now 
Mass  priests,  who,  after  the  Reformation,  could 
become  so  only  under  pain  of  death  ? 

Because  a small  group  of  clergy  now  chooses 
to  think  that  our  Lord  meant  what  He  said  in 
the  solemn  words  at  the  Last  Supper,  will  He 
come  into  the  bread  and  wine  of  their  conse- 
crating, without  requiring  of  them  any  act  of 
penitence  and  reconciliation  with  the  mystic 
Body  from  which  they  have  been  so  long  divided  ? 
How  can  we  think  so  ? How  can  they  think 
so  ? 

If  the  Church  of  England  is  indeed  a part  of 


" AN  IMMENSE  CHASM  ” 


65 


the  Church  Catholic,  when  did  she  repent  her 
of  the  schism  by  which  she  withdrew  from 
communion  with  the  mystic  Body  of  Christ  ? 
For,  surely,  to  tear  down  the  Catholic  altars, 
to  martyr  the  Catholic  priests,  to  repudiate  the 
Eucharistic  Sacrifice,  and  to  abandon  every 
Catholic  practice,  was  to  withdraw  from  com- 
munion with  the  Church  of  which  she  had 
heretofore  formed  a part. 

And  when  did  she  effect  anew  a junction 
with  that  holy  Church,  so  that  the  practices  of 
that  Church  might  again  be  valid  in  her  own  ? 
When  was  she  regrafted  on  to  the  Vine,  that  so 
the  life  of  the  Vine  might  reanimate  her  actions 
and  once  more  give  her  true  sacramental  life  ? 

Never  in  the  history  of  the  Churches,  either 
of  the  East  or  of  the  West,  has  happened  what 
happened  to  the  Church  in  England  at  the 
Reformation.  Bad,  unfaithful,  worldly  Popes, 
Patriarchs,  and  priests  there  have  been;  deeply 
we  regret  the  Eastern  schism,  but  never  has  a 
hierarchy  and  a nation  denied  the  central  truths 
of  their  religion,  broken  down  the  altars,  and 
desecrated  the  old  churches  with  false  rites,  as 
did  the  clergy  and  people  of  England  under 
Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth.  Yet  now  their  direct 
successors  claim  to  belong  to  that  Holy  Catholic 
Church  which  their  forefathers  so  bitterly  denied. 

5 


66 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


It  is  all  so  extraordinarily  contradictory, 
and  by  what  theory  can  these  contradictions 
be  reconciled  ? When  came  the  break  with 
the  Church  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  ? Why, 
the  greater  number  of  Anglican  clergy  still 
subscribe  to  those  Articles.  When  did  the 
Church  of  England  repudiate  her  lineal  descent 
from  the  reformers  who  persecuted  the  Catholics 
with  knife  and  hangman  ? And  until  she  repudi- 
ates that  descent,  until  she  unites  herself  once 
more  to  the  unchanged  and  unchanging  mystic 
Body  of  Jesus,  how  can  she  hope  for  the  tre- 
mendous privilege  of  His  Eucharistic  Presence  ? 

An  Anglican  Dean  spoke  the  other  day  of 
" that  marvellously  dexterous  Elizabethan  settle- 
ment which  fixed  the  constitution  and  character 
of  the  Church  of  England  when  it  separated 
from  Rome.” 

There  is  no  repudiation  here  of  the  Church 
of  Elizabeth,  under  whose  jurisdiction  so  many 
noble  men  and  women  suffered  confiscation, 
torture,  and  death  for  their  adherence  to  the 
Catholic  faith. 

Another  Anglican  divine  admits  that  “ in 
that  great  process  (of  the  Reformation)  Western 
Christendom  was  bisected  as  by  an  earthquake, 
and  it  remains  still  severed  by  an  immense 
chasm.  . . . English  Churchmen  . . . are,  and 


" AN  IMMENSE  CHASM  ” 67 

must  for  ever  be,  on  the  Reformation  side  of  the 
chasm,  and  not  on  the  other.  The  status  of 
the  Reformed  Church  of  England  was  fixed  by 
the  events  of  the  revolutionary  years  1530  to 
1560,  The  abolition  of  the  Papal  jurisdiction 
by  the  national  authority  implied  the  repudi- 
ation of  the  mediaeval  conception  of  the  Church ; 
and  the  abolition  of  the  Mass  implied  the  repudi- 
ation of  the  mediaeval  conception  of  the 
ministry.” 

Clearly,  the  mere  opinion  of  a handful  of  High 
Church  clergy,  admirable  men  though  they  may 
be,  can  never  recall  to  their  midst  the  Treasure 
for  which  they  long. 

I think  a recent  decision  arrived  at  by  one  of 
the  Anglican  Bishops  affords  proof  that  even 
the  most  advanced  leaders  of  Anglican  thought 
realize  in  their  heart  of  hearts  that  the  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation  is  not  for  them.  While 
giving  permission  for  reservation  of  the  Sacra- 
ment, adoration  was  strictly  forbidden,  and  the 
clergy  were  warned  that  the  consecrated  elements 
must  be  kept  in  a secluded  chapel.  No  Bishop 
who  holds  the  Catholic  belief — that  the  Majesty 
of  God  the  Son,  the  eternal  Word,  is  incarnate 
in  the  Blessed  Sacrament — would  dare  to  forbid 
adoration  to  It.  At  the  risk  of  losing  his  benefice, 
he  would  rather  encourage  and  exhort  his  flock 


68 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


to  adoration  of  the  Sacred  Host,  as  every  faithful 
Catholic  priest  has  done  from  the  beginning. 

This  is  the  true  and  final  test  of  Catholicity. 
“ He  who  believes  in  the  Presence  of  Jesus  in  the 
tabernacle  cannot  long  doubt  that  His  mystic 
Body  is  one,  visible,  indivisible,  and  infallible; 
that  Its  voice  is  the  voice  of  Jesus,  divine  and 
changeless  in  every  age ; and  believing  this, 
he  cannot  linger  long  upon  the  threshold  of 
the  only  Church  of  God  among  men.  Thus 
the  unity  of  the  True  Fold  and  of  the  Truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,  would  spread  once  more  in  England, 
evenly  and  irresistibly  as  a circle  on  the  waters.” 

Thus  spoke  Cardinal  Manning,  and  his  words 
express  the  inmost  thought  of  every  soul  bowed 
in  adoration  and  joy  before  the  tabernacle — 
where  lies  the  ever-incarnate  Lord. 

It  is  a great  happiness  to  me  that  you  at  least 
have  learnt  to  know  “ the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.” 

I am,  dear  Katherine, 

Yours  affectionately, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  XI 


CHILDREN  IN  THE  CHURCH 

This  letter,  addressed  to  Mrs.  Mary  Cathcart, 
one  of  Miss  Dunbar’s  Catholic  friends,  is  a reply 
to  one  received  from  Mrs.  Cathcart,  in  which 
she  describes  her  happiness  in  teaching  her 
children  the  beautiful  truths  of  the  Catholic 
faith.  She  wrote:  “ There  appears  to  be  in  our 
glorious  faith  something  wonderfully  suited  to 
the  children’s  needs.  They  assimilate  it  as 
easily  as  a baby  assimilates  its  mother’s  milk, 
and  their  little  souls  seem  visibly  to  expand 
under  its  influence.  Tom  is  already  the  valiant 
champion  of  Our  Lady,  and  Marjory  an  ardent, 
wee  follower  of  the  Holy  Child.” 

This  letter  is  one ' of  the  earliest  written  by 
Miss  Dunbar  after  her  conversion. 

My  dearest  Mary, 

How  well  I can  imagine  your  happiness 
in  teaching  Tom  and  Marjory  all  the  lovely 
truths  of  the  Catholic  faith.  Scarcely  anything 
has  touched  me  more  since  my  admission  to 
the  Church  than  the  beautiful  behaviour  of 
the  children,  and  their  evident  appreciation  of 
what  they  are  taught.  You  see,  it  is  all  so  new 

69 


70 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


to  me.  No  child  ever  thinks  of  going  into  an 
Anglican  church  to  say  its  prayers,  except  on 
Sunday,  and  then  it  is  almost  a penance.  I shall 
never  forget  my  own  dread  of  Sundays,  and  the 
being  compelled  to  sit  still  or  kneel  quietly  while 
prayers  I could  neither  follow  nor  understand 
were  being  recited,  and  a sermon  was  preached 
which  rarely  came  within  the  range  of  my  com- 
prehension. Sunday  meant  best  clothes,  too, 
and  as  best  clothes  are  seldom  quite  comfortable, 
whatever  there  may  have  been  in  that  grey, 
dreary  church  to  feed  my  small  soul  was  thrown 
away ; for  are  not  new  shoes  invariably  tight  ? 
and  best  hats  of  a most  unusual  weight  ? and  do 
they  not  for  ever  tilt  to  one  side  or  the  other  ? And 
what  child  can  be  attentive  under  such  conditions  ? 

Of  course,  I was  not  always  afflicted  with  new 
shoes  or  an  overpowering  hat,  but  my  most 
vivid  recollections  are  of  such  things. 

Then  that  long  Litany,  that  dreadful  Athana- 
sian  Creed,  those  endless  Psalms  sung  standing, 
while  the  shoes  pinched  more  than  ever  and  the 
hat  grew  increasingly  heavy  ! How  well  I can 
remember  it  all  ! You  cannot  imagine  the  joy 
and  relief  it  is  to  me  to  see  tiny  mites  come 
toddling  into  church  hand-in-hand  at  all  hours 
of  the  day,  on  every  day  of  the  week,  and  in 
all  sorts  of  clothes.  They  make  their  little 


CHILDREN  IN  THE  CHURCH 


7i 


bobs  towards  the  altar,  and  kneel  down  quiet 
as  mice  and  say  their  prayers,  and  feel  so  much 
at  home — one  can  see  it  in  their  sweet,  bright 
faces.  They  know  the  King  of  the  children, 
once  a little  child  Himself,  is  there  to  welcome 
them,  to  comfort  their  childish  sorrow  and  dry 
their  ready  tears.  It  is  such  a revelation  to 
me,  and  I find  it  in  my  heart  to  envy  you  the 
joy  of  watching  your  two  babes  absorbing  all 
you  can  teach  them,  and  learning  to  practise 
it  under  your  care.  This  Catholic  faith  is  very 
wonderful;  it  is  a food  as  marvellously  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  children  as  it  is  to  the  wants 
of  their  elders. 

Somehow,  in  the  Anglican  Church  there  is  a 
sad  failure  to  hold  the  children,  to  elicit  from  their 
tender  hearts  the  glowing  love  they  pour  out 
so  freely  on  their  parents  and  their  friends. 
I think  it  is  because  there  is  too  much  doctrine 
taught  in  a dry,  uninteresting  manner,  while 
not  enough  is  made  of  the  infancy,  the  child- 
hood, and  the  boyhood  of  our  Lord.  There  is 
a woeful  strain  about  the  children’s  worship,  an 
effort  and  a sense  of  compulsion  which  is  rarely 
seen  in  a Catholic  child. 

To  the  little  Anglican,  Jesus  lived  nearly 
2,000  years  ago.  He  was  a good  man  who  was 
in  some  incomprehensible  way  also  the  Son  of 


^ 4 - ST  .4  COLL 

FACULTY  Li  ERA  r 


.HPctaji: 


72 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


God,  and  when  He  had  taught  a little,  and  had 
performed  a few  miracles,  He  died  on  the  Cross, 
and  then  went  back  to  heaven. 

It  was  very  kind  and  good  of  Him  to  come  to 
tell  us  about  God,  and  then  to  die  for  us;  but  it 
all  happened  so  long  ago  that  He  may  have  quite 
forgotten  by  this  time  what  it  feels  like  to  be  a 
child,  and  to  be  hungry  or  cold,  or  to  have 
broken  toys,  or  pets  which  grow  old  and  die. 
This  is  something  like  the  trend  of  the  Anglican 
child’s  thought,  and  the  teaching  fails  to  bring 
home  to  the  children’s  minds  the  eternal  nature  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  and  His  actual  Presence  with  us. 

But  for  the  Catholic  child  it  is  very  different. 
The  Church  is  the  home  of  the  holy  Infant,  who 
is  always  a child  to  the  children,  and  who  has 
forgotten  nothing,  and  never  can  forget,  for  He  is 
God,  and  with  God  there  is  neither  past  nor  future. 

The  crib  at  Christmas  is  a lovely  reminder  of 
these  things,  and  the  little  boys  and  girls  bring 
their  pennies  and  light  their  candles,  and  their 
hearts  are  touched  and  filled  with  pride  and  love 
as  they  gaze  on  the  Baby  in  the  straw,  and  re- 
member that  the  little  Child  was  God  Himself, 
and  for  love  of  them  He  lay  in  a manger  and  was 
quite  weak  and  small.  And  then  they  go  to 
Mass  and  to  Communion,  and  the  Holy  Child 
feeds  them  with  His  tender  Body,  that  their  tiny 


CHILDREN  IN  THE  CHURCH 


73 


hearts  may  be  made  warm  and  loving  like  His 
Heart,  and  their  minds  kept  pure  and  humble  by 
contact  with  His  purity  and  humility. 

It  is  all  so  exquisite  I can  scarcely  keep  from 
weeping  when  I see  the  children  in  church,  and 
remember  my  own  childish  difficulties  and  the 
thousands  of  poor  mites  who  do  not  know  our 
Blessed  Lord  in  any  real  sense. 

Then  there  is  that  dreadful  bugbear  to  the 
Anglican  mind — Confession  ! (I  am  not  speak- 
ing now  of  the  High  Anglican  party.)  I can  see 
Aunt  Alicia  holding  up  her  hands  in  horror 
at  the  idea  of  such  a thing  for  a child,  but  I can 
imagine  the  blessing  it  is  to  those  little  ones 
who  find  it  “ hard  to  talk  to  mummie,”  and  how 
much  it  must  help  in  the  cultivation  of  an  open 
and  direct  habit  of  mind,  and  a dread  of  every 
form  of  sin,  even  the  most  venial.  My  own  life, 
I must  admit,  would  have  been  very  different, 
could  I have  had  from  childhood  the  gentle 
direction  of  the  Church,  and  the  wholesome 
relief  and  safeguard  which  the  Sacrament  of 
Penance  affords. 

I shall  regret  to  the  end  of  my  days  that 
I have  come  to  know  so  late  what  our  dear 
Mother  Church  has  to  offer  us  all.  How  much 
your  little  ones  are  to  be  envied!  They  will 
drink  in  the  Gospel  stories  as  other  children 


74 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


drink  in  fairy-tales,  and  the  scenes  from  the 
life  of  Christ  will  live  in  their  fresh  imaginations 
as  real  and  living  facts.  Of  course,  every  English 
child  is  taught  the  Gospel  story,  but  not  with 
the  same  insistence  and  wealth  of  detail  which 
belong  to  Catholic  methods.  The  story  of  the 
Cross  and  Passion  is  thought  too  morbid  a subject 
to  be  dwelt  upon,  the  carpenter’s  home  at 
Nazareth  too  mean  an  environment  for  the  Son 
of  God  to  be  remembered  except  vaguely  and  at 
rare  intervals.  The  Catholic  is  taught  to  make 
these  things  the  subjects  of  his  daily  medita- 
tion, and,  as  life  advances,  to  draw  a constant 
supply  of  pure  joy  and  noble  inspiration  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  Divine  love  thus  shown 
to  men. 

I shall  never  forget  one  day,  when  I was  about 
ten  years  old,  finding  in  a magazine  a picture 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey  on  her  way  to  execution. 
The  picture  fascinated  me;  I sat  looking  at  it 
until  the  whole  scene  was  a living  reality.  I 
was  Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  that  was  my  husband 
whose  body  rough  men  were  just  removing  from 
the  scaffold.  In  a few  minutes  I should  have  to 
die  in  the  same  horrible  and  cruel  manner  ! I 
felt  the  knife  upon  my  neck  ! The  tears  streamed 
down  my  face.  I was  full  of  pity  and  horror 
for  those  happy  lives  so  soon  cut  short.  And 


CHILDREN  IN  THE  CHURCH 


75 


if  I had  been  told  that  the  suffering  was  all  for 
me,  how  my  young,  passionate  heart  would  have 
responded,  and  how  dear  to  me  for  ever  would 
the  actors  in  that  drama  have  become ! If,  at 
that  period,  the  life  of  our  Lord  and  His  Mother 
could  have  been  put  before  me  in  just  the  same 
real  and  vivid  way,  I know  well  the  sort  of 
response  I should  have  made.  The  Catholic 
Church  does  this  for  the  children.  Year  in  and 
year  out,  she  proposes  for  their  study  the  life 
of  Jesus  in  all  its  beauty,  but  also  in  all  its  pain. 
In  our  churches  the  children  see  everywhere  the 
image  of  Jesus  crucified,  the  Stations  of  the  Cross 
on  every  wall,  and  you  and  I,  dear  Mary,  know 
its  effect  upon  the  little  souls. 

" Cruel,  morbid,  superstitious,  unnecessary, 
and  undesirable  in  every  way,”  cries  the  world 
outside.  “ The  best  preparation  for  life,”  per- 
sists the  Church,  for  after  the  Passion  came  the 
Resurrection,  after  the  humiliation  of  the  Cross 
the  Ascension  to  the  Father.  The  children 
know  this  well,  and  smile  through  sympathetic 
tears;  and  suffering  and  tempted  men  and  women, 
remembering  the  childish  lessons,  find  strength  and 
hope  to  smile,  too,  and  fight  on  bravely  to  the  end. 

I am  increasingly  happy,  as  you  may  suppose, 
and  am,  as  ever, 

Your  affectionate 

Louise. 


LETTER  XII 


THE  WORLD’S  ESTIMATE  OF  THE 
CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

In  the  following  letter  Miss  Dunbar  expresses 
her  distress  at  the  ignorance  and  prejudice 
displayed  in  the  world’s  hatred  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  She  and  Mrs.  Cathcart  felt  very  strongly 
on  the  subject,  and  it  was  the  theme  at  one  time 
of  a great  deal  of  their  correspondence.  It  was 
the  ardent  desire  of  both  ladies  to  do  something 
towards  the  spread  of  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  Church,  and  Miss  Dunbar’s  consent  to  the 
publication  of  her  letters  is  the  outcome  on  her 
part  of  this  wish. 

Dearest  Mary, 

It  would  be  immensely  amusing,  if  it  were 
not  a little  sad,  to  notice  the  way  in  which 
different  people  receive  the  news  of  my  admission 
to  the  Church. 

Only  a few  days  ago  I travelled  to  town  with 
Mrs.  Marsden,  who,  as  you  know,  is  of  Low 
Church  persuasions,  and  full  of  good  works  and 
kind  intentions.  She  had  heard  nothing  of 
my  sad  fall  (!),  but  the  conversation  turning  on 
Church  matters,  she  mentioned  with  a deprecating 

76 


ESTIMATE  OF  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  77 

air  that  her  sister  had  for  some  time  attended 
St.  Anne’s,  a very  “ High  ” church  in  the  city. 
“ It  is  very  shocking,”  she  sighed.  “ Not  half 
so  shocking,”  I answered  lightly,  “ as  going  to 
St.  Philip’s,  the  church  I am  on  my  way  to  now.” 
Mrs.  Marsden  started.  “ But  you  are  not  a Roman 
Catholic?”  “Indeed  I am,”  I replied.  “I 
have  been  one  for  six  months.”  She  edged  a 
little  away  from  me  and  said,  with  suppressed 
agitation:  “ Oh  ! I am  sorry.”  (I  might  at 
least  have  joined  some  such  society  as  the  Black 
Hand  or  the  Suicide  Club  !)  “No,  no,”  I 
laughed  back;  “ you  must  give  me  warmest 
congratulations  on  the  happiest  step  in  my  life.” 
I was  met  with  a look  of  puzzled  dismay,  so  it 
seemed  best  to  drop  the  subject,  and  we  passed 
on  to  the  discussion  of  indifferent  topics ; but  I 
was  conscious  that  poor  Mrs.  Marsden  was 
suffering  from  a sort  of  internal  collapse  at  my 
announcement,  and  I was  glad  when  I could 
relieve  her  of  my  presence,  poor  dear  ! 

Does  it  not  seem  incredible  that  good  people 
should  be  the  victims  of  so  much  unreasoning 
prejudice  and  ignorance  ? The  Church  which, 
more  than  any  other,  preaches  daily  and  hourly 
sanctification  to  her  children  is  spurned  as  some- 
thing obnoxious  and  detestable,  even  by  those 
who  are  anxious  to  serve  our  Lord. 


78  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

Do  you  remember  the  story  of  St.  Ignatius 
Loyola,  who  one  day,  in  the  middle  of  the  morn- 
ing, asked  of  a brother  of  his  Order:  “ Brother, 
how  many  times  have  you  examined  your 
conscience  to-day  ?”  “ Seven  times/’  replied 

the  brother  readily.  “ Is  that  all  ?”  asked 
Ignatius  in  a sad  and  disappointed  voice.  Yet 
this  saint,  who  demanded  from  the  members  of 
the  Order  he  founded  the  most  exact  purity 
of  life  and  word  and  thought,  was  he  who,  as 
a Jesuit  and  the  Father  of  the  Jesuits,  has  been, 
after  his  Master,  one  of  the  best  hated,  feared, 
and  scorned  among  men. 

All  the  world  over  men  profess  to  love  integrity, 
kindness,  and  truth,  yet  where  in  all  the  world 
are  these  virtues  so  much  insisted  on,  cultivated, 
and  encouraged  as  in  the  Catholic  Church  ? 
There  have  been  times  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
(as  in  the  mission  to  Japan)  when  a little  laxity 
of  moral  teaching  would  have  brought  converts 
in  flocks  to  the  fold,  but  not  one  jot  or  tittle 
of  her  law  would  the  Church  abate;  men  must 
ever  rise  to  her  standard,  she  will  not  fall  to  theirs. 
Yet  it  seems  impossible  to  make  these  things 
clear  to  the  outside  world;  there  is  a fixed  spirit 
of  enmity  abroad  which  insists  on  bedaubing 
the  Church  with  every  misdeed  that  she  desires 
to  correct.  Is  there  immorality  in  a Catholic 


ESTIMATE  OF  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  79 

country  ? It  is  the  Church  that  fosters  it. 
Is  there  rebellion  and  revolution  ? It  is  in  the 
Church  that  the  disturbance  commences.  Are 
the  people  illiterate  ? It  is  the  priests  who 
discourage  education  and  enlightenment  for 
their  own  ends.  (What  ends  ? Heaven  alone 
knows !)  Even  murder  and  dishonesty  have 
been  laid  at  the  doors  of  the  “ Bride  of  Christ/' 
for  that  “ the  end  justifies  the  means  ” is  still 
supposed  by  the  Protestant  multitude  to  be 
the  grand  motto  of  Catholics. 

Yet  how  far  removed  is  all  this  from  the  truth. 
I do  not  know  any  Christian  community  in  which 
the  life  of  our  Blessed  Lord  is  studied  with  such 
care,  nor  sought  so  assiduously  as  the  model 
of  conduct.  His  purity,  gentleness,  love,  and 
pity;  His  patience  in  suffering  and  unmerited 
disgrace;  His  generous  forgiveness  of  wrong — 
these  are  held  up  day  by  day  by  the  priests  of 
His  Church  as  the  things  which  are  to  be  striven 
for,  prayed  for,  suffered  for,  beyond  all  riches 
and  fame  and  worldly  honour.  Sanctification 
and  unremitting  recollection  of  the  Presence  of 
God — these  are  the  aim  and  object  of  every  cere- 
mony, every  prayer,  and  every  effort  of  the 
Church. 

Again,  it  is  to  the  Church  that  England  owes 
the  foundation  of  all  her  principal  Universities 


8o 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


and  schools.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  torch  of 
learning  was  nowhere  kept  so  brightly  burning 
as  in  the  seminaries  and  monasteries  of  the 
Church.  Witness  the  illuminated  manuscripts, 
the  exquisitely  written  parchments,  the  historical 
records,  over  which  learned  and  enthusiastic 
monks  have  pored  so  diligently,  wrestling  with 
and  overcoming  difficulties  of  which  students, 
in  this  age  of  cheaply  printed  literature  and  great 
free  libraries,  can  have  no  conception. 

It  is  to  Caedmon,  Bede,  Orm,  and  Layamon — 
all  monks — that  we  owe  the  foundation  of 
English  literature;  it  was  by  monks  that  the 
Anglo-Saxon  “ Chronicle  ” was  compiled — “ the 
first  history  of  any  Teutonic  people  in  their  own 
language;  the  earliest  and  most  venerable  monu- 
ment of  English  prose.” 

The  full  tale  of  the  debt  which  England  owes 
to  the  Catholic  Church  would  fill  volumes. 
Agriculture,  no  less  than  the  gentler  arts,  received 
its  first  impulse  from  the  monks,  who  cultivated 
most  assiduously  their  monastic  domains.  The 
sick  and  the  poor  received  their  first  tendance 
and  relief  from  religious  hands. 

To  this  day  there  are  no  schools  in  England 
better  built  and  equipped  than  the  schools  of 
the  Church  (except  where  her  work  is  hindered 
through  pressure  of  poverty),  and  her  priests. 


ESTIMATE  OF  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  81 


even  the  humblest,  receive  an  education  and 
preparation  for  their  ministry  which,  in  length  of 
time  and  thoroughness,  far  exceeds  that  accorded 
to  the  Anglican  clergy  or  to  the  ministers  of  any 
other  religion. 

Yet  this  is  the  Church  which  is  supposed  to 
foster  and  encourage  ignorance  and  mediocrity, 
to  discourage  progress  and  to  hinder  civilization. 

“ It  is  our  boast,”  said  one  of  our  Bishops, 
“ and  surely  not  an  empty  boast,  that  the  Church 
is  the  Mother  of  true  civilization.  All  along 
she  has  been  in  full  sympathy  with  the  schemes 
of  social  progress  and  philanthropy  which  are 
the  redeeming  features  of  our  times.  Yet  what 
do  we  find  ? At  home  and  abroad  there  is  at 
work  a malignant  spirit  determined  to  shut  out 
the  co-operation  of  the  Catholic  Church,  to  fasten 
quarrels  upon  her,  and  to  misrepresent  her  as 
an  anti-social  and  retrograde  influence.  It  is 
pretended  that  she  blocks  all  reforms.  National 
education  is  delayed  because  she  blocks  the  way. 
The  worker  is  kept  out  of  his  just  demands 
because  she  blocks  the  way.  ...  A campaign 
of  calumny  and  persecution  is  waged,  not  on 
practical,  but  purely  anti-religious  grounds, 
against  Catholic  institutions  established  for  the 
very  objects  which  the  persecutors  profess  to 
have  so  much  at  heart.  In  one  country  after 

6 


82 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


another  Catholic  schools  are  closed,  orphanages 
for  destitute  children  and  asylums  for  the  aged 
and  infirm  are  broken  up,  the  very  hospitals  are 
“ laicized/'  and  incompetent  persons  intruded, 
for  fear  the  Church  should  win  credit  by  the 
devoted  labours  of  her  religious."  * 

These  are  sad  and  curious  facts,  are  they  not, 
dear  Mary  ? They  make  one  long  to  do  something 
to  help  to  spread  a more  just  and  accurate  know- 
ledge of  the  Church  and  her  noble  aims,  that  the 
dark  cloud  of  misrepresentation  may  be  dis- 
sipated which  obscures  from  the  world  her 
beauty  and  eminent  usefulness. 

Ever  your  affectionate 

Louise. 

* Bishop  of  Northampton  in  his  “ Lenten  Pastoral,” 
March,  1912. 


LETTER  XIII 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE 

Very  shortly  after  her  conversion  Miss  Dunbar 
received  a pathetic  letter  from  an  old  Protestant 
aunt,  Dame  Alicia  Steadman,  who  wrote  express- 
ing her  great  sorrow  at  the  step  her  niece  had 
taken,  particularly  as  it  involved  her  in  the 
“ truly  horrible  practice  of  Confession,  a practice 
which/ * she  declared,  “ was  a relic  of  mediaeval 
priest-rule,  not  to  be  tolerated  in  a free  country, 
and  especially  among  English  gentlewomen.” 
To  this  aunt,  a fine  old  representative  of  a Puritan 
house.  Miss  Dunbar  replied  as  fully  and  clearly 
as  she  possibly  could  in  the  following  letter: 

My  dear  Aunt  Alicia, 

Your  letter  has  not  hurt  me  in  the  least. 
It  is  perfectly  natural  that  you  should  feel  as 
you  do.  You  have  never  been  acquainted  with 
Catholics,  nor  had  any  opportunity  of  learning 
the  truth  about  the  faith  and  practices  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  I am  not  at  all  surprised 
that  the  misrepresentations  of  her  doctrine 
and  doings,  which  are  so  common  in  England, 
should  have  shocked  you  and  given  you  a feeling 
of  prejudice  against  her. 

83 


84  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

If  you  will  extend  your  patience  to  the  perusal 
of  a somewhat  lengthy  letter,  dear  Aunt,  I shall 
be  only  too  pleased  to  tell  you  everything  I can 
about  the  practice  which,  more  than  any  other, 
disturbs  you,  and  which  is  the  one  always  least 
understood  by  Protestants.  The  practice  of 
Confession  is  not  by  any  means  the  dreadful 
and  superstitious  custom  you  imagine.  It  cannot 
be,  for  it  was  our  Lord  Himself  who  instituted 
it,  His  Apostles  who  enjoined  it,  and  the  Fathers 
of  the  Church  who  have  from  the  earliest  times 
practised  it  and  urged  it  upon  the  faithful. 

You  will  remember  that  our  Lord  proclaimed 
Himself  possessed  of  the  power  to  forgive  sins 
when  He  healed  the  man  “ sick  of  the  palsy,” 
and  that  He  wrought  the  miracle  of  healing  as 
a proof  and  ratification  of  the  gift  of  forgiveness. 
“ But  that  you  may  know  that  the  Son  of  Man 
hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins  (then  sayeth 
He  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy),  Arise.” 

Later,  when  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  and 
appeared  to  His  Apostles,  He  passed  on  to  them 
the  power  He  had  received  in  His  sacred  Human- 
ity from  His  Father.  “ As  my  Father  hath 
sent  Me,  even  so  send  I you.”  Then,  breathing 
upon  them,  He  continued:  “ Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost:  whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are 
remitted  unto  them;  and  whose  soever  sins  ye 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE  85 


retain,  they  are  retained.”  These  were  our 
Lord’s  own  words,  the  words  of  Him  who  gave 
us  that  beautiful  prayer,  the  “ Our  Father,” 
and  urged  us  to  “ worship  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.”  Obviously,  in  leaving  the  power  of 
absolution  to  His  Church,  He  did  not  intend  to 
interpose  the  priesthood  between  our  souls 
and  God.  He  designed  the  Sacrament  merely 
to  appease  and  satisfy  our  aching  human  needs. 
He  knew  the  necessity  of  the  soul  to  be  braced 
and  humbled  by  the  exercise  of  self-examination, 
He  knew,  too,  the  craving  of  the  awakened 
conscience  for  an  absolute  assurance  of  forgive- 
ness. 

The  Apostles,  and  the  priests  of  the  Church 
after  them,  were  to  be  mouthpieces  for  the  utter- 
ance of  God’s  pardon;  messengers  carrying  the 
“ word  of  reconciliation  ” to  all  His  penitent 
little  ones.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
Apostles  and  the  early  Fathers  accepted  as  a 
veritable  Sacrament  the  power  of  forgiveness 
thus  bequeathed  to  them  by  our  Lord. 

Tertullian,  in  the  second  century,  wrote: 
“For  if  thou  thinkest  heaven  is  still  closed, 
remember  that  the  Lord  left  here  the  keys 
thereof  to  Peter,  and  through  him  to  the  Church.” 
Again,  in  the  third  century,  the  great  Origen 
wrote:  “ He  that,  like  the  Apostles,  has  been 


86 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


breathed  upon  by  Jesus,  and  who  can  be  known  by 
his  fruits  as  having  the  Holy  Spirit  and  become 
spiritual,  by  being  led  by  the  Spirit  after  the 
manner  of  the  Son  of  God  . . he  forgives 
whatever  God  would  forgive,  and  retains  the 
sins  that  are  incurable.” 

Notice,  dear  Aunt,  that  then,  as  now,  only 
those  who  have  been  tried  and  proved  to  be 
men  who  were  “ led  by  the  Spirit  ” were  allowed 
to  dispense  the  Sacrament  of  Penance. 

The  travesty  of  the  Sacrament  in  the  Church 
of  England  is  not  thus  guarded.  . Any  clergyman 
who  thinks  fit  may  constitute  himself  the  judge 
of  his  flock,  and  the  dispenser  of  pardons;  but 
it  is  only  after  arduous  preparation  and  searching 
examination  that  a priest  of  the  Catholic  Church 
is  permitted  (receives  “ faculties  ” from  his 
Bishop)  to  enter  a confessional,  and  bestow  upon 
his  penitents  Christ’s  inestimable  gift. 

Even  Archbishop  Cranmer  — that  ardent 
Protestant — was  still  so  far  in  harmony  with 
his  Mother  Church  as  to  believe  in  the  efficacy 
of  the  Sacrament  of  Penance.  “ Wherefore,” 
he  wrote,  “ let  him  that  is  a sinner  go  to  one  of 
the  ministers  of  the  Church,  let  him  confess  his 
sin,  and  pray  him  that,  according  to  God’s 
commandment,  he  will  give  him  absolution  and 
comfort  him  with  the  word  of  grace  and  forgive- 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE  87 


ness  of  his  sins.  And  when  the  minister  does 
so,  then  I ought  truly  to  believe  that  my  sins 
are  forgiven  me  in  heaven.” 

Even  Cranmer  believed  that  God  uses  men 
as  the  channels  of  His  grace,  and  that  He  bestows 
His  spiritual  gifts  through  the  medium  of  visible 
agents. 

St.  Ambrose  defended  such  a belief  when  he 
exclaimed:  “If  it  be  not  lawful  for  sins  to  be 
forgiven  by  man,  why  do  you  baptize  ? For 
assuredly  in  baptism  there  is  remission  of  all 
sins.” 

It  was  the  conviction  of  every  one  of  these 
great  and  holy  men  that  Christ  had  left  the  power 
of  forgiveness  to  His  Church,  and  in  practising 
confession  we  are  only  acting  in  harmony  with 
the  earliest  traditions  of  the  Saints. 

You  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  we  regard 
the  word  of  absolution  either  as  indispensable 
for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  or  as  active  to  bestow 
pardon  where  there  is  no  real  penitence.  You 
remember  that  our  Lord  said:  “ Not  every  one 
who  saith  unto  Me,  ‘ Lord,  Lord,’  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.” 

The  Catholic  Church  teaches,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  sin  is  forgiven  only  to  the  truly  contrite, 
and  that  confession  and  penance  are  null  and 


88 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


void  without  a real  sorrow  for  sin  (even  attrition 
is  real  sorrow),  a genuine  sense  of  guilt,  and  a 
firm  resolution  to  amend ; and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  if  there  be  real  sorrow  for  sin  and  a hearty 
abandonment  of  it,  it  is  forgiven  by  God  at 
once , before  confession  is  made  to  the  priest  or 
the  spoken  word  of  absolution  given,  so  long 
as  there  is  an  intention  to  go  to  confession  as 
soon  as  opportunity  permits.  We  believe  that 
if  we,  impenitent,  receive  the  word  of  absolution, 
it  does  but  turn  to  our  condemnation,  and 
bestows  a curse  rather  than  a blessing. 

All  this,  I know,  is  very  different  from  what 
our  enemies  believe  about  our  faith,  but  I have 
not  written  one  word  that  is  not  perfectly  true. 

Besides  the  plea  of  authority,  there  is  no 
doubt,  too,  that  the  Sacrament  of  Penance 
confers  the  greatest  comfort  and  help  on  those 
who  avail  themselves  of  it. 

The  practice  of  confession  imposes  a methodical 
and  regular  habit  of  self-examination,  and  all 
who  are  striving  to  lead  the  higher  life  know  how 
necessary  such  a practice  is  to  the  healthy  growth 
of  the  soul.  It  is  the  weeding  and  stirring  of 
the  soil  round  about  a precious  plant. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  are  told  that 
the  converts  to  Christianity  “ came  and  confessed 
their  deeds.” 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE  89 

St.  James  urges  his  hearers:  “ Confess  therefore 
your  sins  to  one  another,  and  pray  for  one  another, 
that  you  may  be  saved.” 

St.  Clement,  in  the  first  century,  wrote:  “ For 
it  is  good  for  a man  to  confess  his  transgressions, 
rather  than  to  harden  his  heart  and  Tertullian, 
in  the  second  century:  “ The  confession  of  sins 
lightens  their  burden  as  much  as  the  dissembling 
of  them  increases  it,  for  confession  savoureth 
of  satisfaction,  dissembling  of  stubbornness/' 
Lactantius,  too,  in  the  fourth  century,  wrote: 
“ There  is  no  one  so  prudent  and  circumspect 
as  not  sometimes  to  fall.  And  therefore  God, 
knowing  our  weakness,  has,  according  to  His 
loving-kindness,  opened  to  man  a harbour  of 
safety,  that  the  medicine  of  penitence  might  come 
in  aid  of  that  necessity  to  which  our  frailty  is 
subject.” 

Once  more,  to  quote  your  own  Church’s 
Bishops,  Bishop  Ridley  has:  " Confession  to  a 
minister  I ever  thought  did  much  good  in  Christ’s 
congregation,  and  so  I think  to  this  day.” 
Bishop  Latimer,  too:  " But  to  speak  of  right  and 
true  confession,  I would  to  God  it  were  kept  in 
England,  for  it  is  a good  thing.” 

One  point  more:  the  Sacrament  of  Penance 
is  also  an  application  of  the  Divine  law 
to  the  individual  circumstance.  We  all  know 


go  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

the  Ten  Commandments  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  but  how  dilatory  we  are  in  applying 
God's  tests  to  ourselves  ! The  wise  and  good 
priest  holds  up  to  his  penitents  the  pure  law  of 
Christ,  and  applies  it  directly  to  their  own  lives. 
He  reminds  the  angry  and  ill-tempered  that  they, 
no  less  than  those  who  kill,  are  in  danger  of  the 
judgment.  He  warns  the  flighty  that  even  their 
unguarded  looks  and  glances  may  be  sinful  in 
the  sight  of  God.  He  instils  the  law  of  Divine 
charity,  and  his  manifold  experience  enables 
him  to  detect  and  point  out  to  the  unwary 
pilgrim  the  subtle  workings  of  evil,  and  to  set 
the  blind  and  stumbling  ones  in  the  plain  and 
simple  paths  of  truth. 

You  will  urge,  perhaps,  that  all  this  can  be  done 
in  sermons.  It  can  no  more  be  done  in  sermons, 
dear  Aunt,  than  people  can  be  cured  of  con- 
sumption or  blood-poisoning  by  attending  a 
health  lecture.  Individual  treatment  alone  can 
help  and  cure. 

There  will  always  be  abuses  of  every  good 
gift  of  God  so  long  as  human  nature  is  inclined 
to  evil,  but  the  gifts  themselves  are  good  and 
wholesome  all  the  time.  It  may  be  that  there 
exist,  here  and  there,  both  priests  and  penitents 
who  make  a sacrilegious  use  of  the  Sacrament, 
but  to  those  who  employ  it  aright  it  will  ever 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  PENANCE  91 

remain  one  of  the  dearest  tokens  of  His  love 
that  God  has  given  us  at  the  hands  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  other  day  I was  allowed  to  see  the  letter 
of  a young  convert,  written  to  an  intimate 
friend  at  the  time  of  his  admission  to  the  Church. 
He  wrote:  “ I had  the  greatest  dread  of  that 
first  confession.  The  night  before  my  reception 
I could  scarcely  refrain  from  writing  to  Father 

W , begging  him  not  to  expect  me  the  next 

morning.  He  appeared  to  have  anticipated  this, 
for  he  expressed  no  surprise  when  I spoke  of 
it.  My  first  interview  with  him  was  at  the 
clergy  house,  and  I was  at  once  charmed  with  his 
simple  manners  and  extreme  kindness,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  I found  myself  talking  quite  at  my 
ease.  He  afterwards  conducted  me  to  the 
church,  where  he  heard  my  confession  before 
giving  me  conditional  Baptism,.  I do  not  know 
how  I crossed  the  aisle  and  found  my  way  into 
the  confessional.  You,  who  know  my  life  so 
well,  know  something  of  the  ordeal  I had  to  face. 
Yet,  without  being  asked  a single  question, 
I felt  compelled,  as  before  the  Great  Judge,  to 

disclose  everything.  Father  W uttered  no 

word  of  reproach  or  blame.  His  tenderness 
was  as  the  tenderness  of  Christ,  but  behind  it 
I felt  the  inexorable  law  of  God.  I seemed  to 


92 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


see  a vision  of  the  Divine  Majesty  throned  in 
awful  purity,  yet  bending  to  me  in  infinite  love. 
All  unlawful  desires  were  burned  up  in  an  instant, 
and  I had  no  will  any  longer  but  a will  to  serve 
God  and  to  surrender  myself  utterly  to  Him.  I 
remembered  the  dream  of  Gerontius,  and  his 
passion  of  self-abasement  at  the  feet  of  Christ, 
for  ‘ the  keen  sanctity  which  with  its  effluence, 
like  a glory,  clothes  and  circles  round  the  Cruci- 
fied,’ ‘ seized,  scorched,  and  shrivelled  * my 
soul,  and  I felt  myself  ' consumed,  yet  quickened, 
by  the  glance  of  God.’  I think  I never  really 
loved  God  until  that  hour,  and  yet  it  was  the 
hour  in  which  He  had  demanded  the  utmost 
sacrifice  from  me.” 

I hope,  dear  Aunt  Alicia,  that  from  my  letter 
and  this  extract  you  will  gain  some  idea  of  the 
real  scope  and  intention  of  the  Sacrament  of 
Penance.  The  priest  is  engaged,  not  in  imposing 
his  own  will  upon  his  penitents,  but  upon  bringing 
home  to  erring  souls  their  true  duty  towards 
God.  This  is  the  simple  and  beautiful  purpose 
of  the  Sacrament,  and  this  is  the  end  it  serves 
to  all  who  use  it  faithfully  and  well. 

Your  affectionate  niece, 

Louise. 


LETTER  XIV 


THE  “ BRANCH  " THEORY 

From  her  old  Vicar,  Canon  Houghton,  Miss 
Dunbar  received  on  her  conversion  a long  letter 
of  regret  and  expostulation.  He  expressed  his 
sorrow  that  she  had  gone  to  look  for  happiness 
in  an  “ alien  Church/’  and  had  been  unable  to 
find  the  solace  afforded  by  Catholicism  in  her 
Mother  Church.  “ Rightly  understood/'  he  wrote, 
“ that  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  known  as 
the  Church  of  England  lacks  nothing  of  that 
which  you  are  going  out  of  your  way  to  seek 
in  the  Church  of  Rome." 

Miss  Dunbar,  in  her  reply,  repudiates  the 
“ branch  theory,"  and  expresses  her  joy  in 
having  found  her  true  Mother  Church  at  last. 

Dear  Canon  Houghton, 

Thank  you  for  your  very  kind  letter,  but 
really  I cannot  allow  your  remark  that  I have 
joined  an  “ alien  Church  " to  pass  unchallenged. 
It  seems,  rather,  to  me  that  I have  found  my 
Mother  at  last  ! that  I have  returned  to  the  true 
old  Mother  Church  of  England  ! She  whom 
you  call  " alien  " is  the  Church  to  whom  England 
was  first  converted,  and  to  whom  she  remained 

93 


94  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

staunch  until  Henry  VIII.  tore  her  ruthlessly 
away  ! 

From  the  days  of  St.  Augustine  to  the  days 
of  the  Reformation  the  Church  of  England  paid 
allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and  was  she  not  then  in 
union  with  the  Church  of  Rome  ? 

Again,  you  cannot  deny  that  England  owes  all 
her  most  glorious  abbeys,  minsters,  and  cathedrals 
to  the  devotion  and  toil  of  monks  and  nuns,  of 
priests  and  laity,  who  were  in  full  communion 
with  the  successor  of  St.  Peter. 

Surely  it  was  only  in  those  early  days  before 
the  Reformation  that  the  Church  in  England 
could  rightly  call  herself  a part  of  the  Universal 
Church;  only  then  that  she  had  any  title  to  the 
term  “ Catholic/’  which  now  the  Anglican 
communion  so  zealously  claims. 

Now  that  she  is  broken  away,  now  that  she 
repudiates  the  Bishop  of  Rome  as  her  head, 
now  that  she  denies  her  foundation  on  the  “ Rock” 
against  which  it  was  promised  that  the  " gates 
of  hell  ” should  " never  prevail,”  on  what  does 
her  claim  to  Catholicity  depend  ? 

Can  a tree  bear  a branch  which  varies  in  form 
of  leaf  and  flower  and  fruit  from  the  rest  of  the 
tree  ? Such  a branch  would  be  like  the  mistletoe 
on  the  apple-tree,  or  the  dodder  on  the  heath — 
a parasite,  but  no  true  part  of  the  tree.  And,  to 


THE  “ BRANCH  ” THEORY 


95 


strain  a metaphor,  if  the  branch,  while  protesting 
itself  a branch,  should  repudiate  the  offices  of 
the  parent  tree,  and  declare  its  self-sufficiency, 
could  it  then  be  called  a branch  at  all  ? Surely 
it  must  then  be  some  new,  independent  growth, 
nourished  and  fed  from  some  new,  alien  root. 

How  could  I “ find  Catholicism  in  my  Mother 
Church/’  when  I cannot  acknowledge  her  as 
my  mother,  seeing  she  does  not  bear  about  in 
her  body  the  marks  of  true  Catholicism?  An 
absolute  unity  of  faith  and  practice  has  in  all 
times  been  the  hall-mark  of  every  genuine  branch 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  Where  is  that  unity 
in  the  Church  of  England  ? Where  is  that 
wholesome  obedience  to  authority  which  marks 
the  children  of  the  true  faith  ? 

" Every  tree,”  and  every  branch  of  it,  “ is 
known  by  its  fruit,”  and  if  the  fruit  of  the  branch 
be  strange  and  diverse,  what  conclusion  can  be 
drawn  but  that  the  branch  is  either  broken  off 
or  is  no  true  branch  at  all  ? If  it  were  really 
part  and  parcel  of  the  tree,  would  it  not  exhibit 
all  the  common  features  of  the  parent  which 
sustains  it  ? 

Will  you  permit  me  to  say  one  thing  more  ? 
Surely  the  epithet  “ alien  ” is  foreign  to  every 
principle  laid  down  by  our  Lord  ! 

I have  always  believed  that  He  came  to  break 


96  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 

down  the  barriers  which  separate  nation  from 
nation,  and  class  from  class.  “ They  shall  come 
from  the  East  and  from  the  West,  and  shall  sit 
down  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 

“ Other  sheep  I have,  which  are  not  of  this 
fold ; them  also  I must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear 
My  voice,  and  there  shall  be  one  fold,  and  one 
shepherd.” 

These  and  many  other  passages  appear  to 
mean  that  in  the  spiritual  kingdom  Christ 
came  to  found,  differences  of  race  and  tongue 
were  to  be  forgotten.  “ They  shall  be  one,” 
was  the  emphatic  teaching,  but  to-day  sects 
multiply  and  faith  is  disintegrating  on  every 
side,  while  one  Church  alone  obeys  the  precept 
and  preserves  within  her  borders  “ unity,  peace, 
and  concord.” 

This  “ alien  Church  ” is  the  Church  of  the 
Fathers  and  of  the  Saints,  and  its  unique  solidarity 
appeals  to  me  as  an  unmistakable  token  that  it 
is  the  one  True  Fold. 

I am,  dear  Canon  Houghton, 
Yours  truly, 

Louise  Dunbar. 


LETTER  XV 

THE  REAL  PRESENCE  AND  CATHOLIC 
MUNIFICENCE 

Miss  Dunbar’s  brother  was  a clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  much  correspondence 
passed  between  the  two  at  the  time  of  her 
conversion.  The  first  of  two  letters  which  are 
all  it  is  necessary  to  include  in  this  volume 
is  a reply  to  a communication  from  the  Rev. 
Hubert  Dunbar,  in  which  he  confessed  to  his 
sister  the  great  difficulties  he  experienced  in 
financing  his  church,  so  grudging  was  the  re- 
sponse he  received  from  his  congregation  to  his 
appeal  for  funds. 

“ Why  is  it  ?”  he  asked  in  despair,  “ that  you 
Roman  Catholics  can  get  your  churches  built, 
and  built  beautifully,  your  clergy  paid,  and  your 
schools  kept  going,  all  without  other  aid  than 
that  afforded  by  the  generosity  of  your  people  ?” 

My  dear  Hubert, 

I am  sincerely  sorry,  but  not  greatly 
surprised,  at  the  difficulty  you  are  experiencing 
in  raising  funds  for  your  church.*  You  ask 
me  why  it  is  that  the  generosity  of  Catholics 

* “ It  is  the  worry  and  anxiety  of  getting  money  for 
their  churches  that  breaks  the  hearts  of  the  clergy  ” 
(Bishop  of  London). — Ed. 

97 


7 


98  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


is  almost  proverbial,  while  the  stinginess  of 
Anglicans  is  a perpetual  sorrow  to  their  clergy; 
and  what  shall  I say  ? Nothing,  I fear,  that 
will  be  very  pleasant  reading,  for  the  cause  is 
deep-rooted,  and  involves  radical  differences 
between  your  Church  and  mine. 

You  do  not  over-estimate  Catholic  open- 
handedness;  it  is  indeed  wonderful.  The  people 
give  most  lavishly  to  the  Church  and  all  her 
institutions,  and  rich  and  poor  vie  with  one 
another  in  their  self-sacrifice  for  the  welfare 
of  their  Holy  Mother.  The  contrast  affords 
a problem,  but  its  solution,  though  deep-seated, 
is  not  far  to  seek.  It  is,  I believe,  summed  up 
in  a single  article  of  our  belief. 

I well  remember,  when  I was  an  Anglican,  with 
what  reluctance  I took  out  my  purse  when 
Sunday  came,  for  I never  felt  greatly  inclined 
to  bestow  my  money  on  the  upkeep  of  services 
and  the  stipends  of  clergy,  affording  me  such 
scanty  help  and  edification  as  I found  at  St. 
N *s. 

Why,  as  an  Anglican,  I never  even  gained  any 
clear  idea  of  the  Incarnation  ! I recollect  that, 
as  a child,  I loved  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  but  never 
God  in  and  through  our  Blessed  Lord;  and  that 
early  distinction,  doubtless  created  by  the  in- 
definite instruction  I received,  led  me  in  later 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE 


99 


days  to  the  verge  of  Unitarianism,  while  the 
practices,  no  less  than  the  vague  teaching  of 
the  Church  of  England,  aided  rather  than  hindered 
this  development. 

At  St.  N ’s,  as  you  will  remember,  a full 

congregation  would  assemble  every  Sunday  morn- 
ing to  praise  God  in  Psalms  and  hymns — the 
devotions  of  “ Morning  Prayer  ” — but,  that 
service  being  over,  the  crowd  would  melt  away, 
until  only  a few  scattered  worshippers  remained 
for  the  “ Celebration  ” and  to  communicate 
with  our  Blessed  Lord.  This  clearly  proved, 
to  my  young  observation,  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  in  some  way  inferior  to  God,  not  only  “ as 
touching  His  manhood,”  but  in  His  entire 
personality. 

When  they  rejected  and  condemned  the  Sacri- 
fice of  the  Mass,  and  substituted  for  it  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  one  wonders  if  the  Re- 
formers ever  suspected  what  a serious  blow 
they  were  aiming  at  the  precious  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  ? One  does  not  care  to  think  that 
they  did,  but  I have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
my  subsequent  loss  of  faith  was  directly  due  to 
the  slights  that,  as  a child,  I saw  offered  every 
Sunday  to  our  Divine  Lord,  and  I do  not  doubt 
that  the  same  cause  has  alienated  many  from 
their  faith  in  Him. 


100  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


For  the  abolition  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice  was  only 
the  outward  sign  of  a far  more  momentous 
inward  change  of  thought.  When  the  Mass 
was  declared  illegal,  the  ancient  Catholic  doctrine 
of  Transubstantiation  was  forsworn,  too,  and  it 
is  this  infinitely  serious  difference  which  marks 
one  of  the  sharp  dividing  lines  between  your 
camp  and  ours.  According  as  they  are  committed 
to  “ High  ” or  “ Low  ” Church  doctrines,  the 
Anglican  clergy  teach  either  Receptionism 
or  Consubstantiation,  but  seldom  Transubstanti- 
ation ;*  nor  have  they  any  right  to  teach  the 
latter. 

Is  this  not  true  ? You  know  that  it  is,  and 
I am  sure  that  this  is  what  draws  so  tightly 
the  purse-strings  of  your  people,  and  causes  your 
appeals  for  funds  to  fall  unheeded  on  their  ears. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  unshakable  belief  in 
the  bodily  Presence  of  our  Lord  in  the  conse- 
crated Host  (both  upon  the  altar  and  in  the 
tabernacle)  is  the  most  powerful  incentive  to 
all  Catholic  charity.  Our  Blessed  Lord  is  always 
among  us,  and  the  spirit  of  all  true  Catholics 
is  the  spirit  of  Mary,  who  brought  the  alabaster 
box  of  precious  ointment  and  poured  it  on  His  feet. 

No  mere  shadowy  “ spiritual  Presence  ” is 
ours,  but  the  Lord  as  He  walked  in  Galilee. 


♦ See  Letter  X. 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE 


IOI 


The  Blessed  Sacrament,  as  we  believe  it, 
satisfies  the  unspoken  craving  of  all  hearts  for 
tangible  intercourse  with  God,  and  all  that 
contributes  to  the  honour  of  His  supreme  Gift 
is  a joy  and  delight  to  His  people.  Beautiful 
churches,  exquisite  altars,  richly  appointed 
services,  noble  music,  fine  pictures,  no  less  than 
our  well-appointed  schools  and  guilds,  all  testify 
to  Catholic  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
and  are  to  be  rightly  understood  only  as  an 
expression  of  that  devotion. 

The  condition  of  our  altars,  compared  with 
your  “ holy  tables/'  is  a confirmation  of  this 
assertion.  Only  the  other  day  I visited  a beautiful 
Anglican  church,  built  for  Catholic  worship 
in  the  fourteenth  century  on  the  ancient  site 
of  an  earlier  oratory.  It  contains  one  of  the  most 
exquisitely  carved  rood  screens  in  England,  which 
has  lately  been  restored  at  a cost  of  £300.  After 
admiring  this  lovely  piece  of  workmanship,  I 
glanced  beyond  it  to  the  “ holy  table.”  Imagine 
my  horror  on  seeing  it  covered  with  a cloth,  once 
white,  but  then  of  the  dingiest  grey  hue;  not 
a flower  nor  a candle,  and  everything  unimagin- 
ably dirty  and  neglected.  This  is  the  fate  of 
scores  of  beautiful  ancient  churches  now  in  the 
hands  of  Anglicans.  They  are  treasured  as 
antiquities,  but  apparently  despised  as  sanctu- 


102  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


aries;  while  the  humblest  Catholic  church,  in 
the  midst  of  a poverty-stricken  district,  will 
have  its  altars  perpetually  decked  with  fresh 
flowers,  with  lights  kept  burning  and  coverings 
clean.  Such  altars  are  object-lessons  to  the 
people,  and  they  induce  a spirit  of  devotion 
and  reverence  for  God  which  influences  their 
whole  lives. 

Could  you  teach  your  flock  the  Divine  doctrine 
of  which  I have  spoken,  you  would  have  no  more 
difficulty  about  your  funds.  It  is,  alas,  forbidden 
to  you  to  teach,  and  for  them  to  hold,  that  truth 
which  is  the  source  to  all  true  Catholics  of  their 
life  and  joy. 

Your  affectionate  sister, 

Louise. 


LETTER  XVI 

THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ST.  PETER 

The  second  letter  to  her  brother  Hubert  was 
penned  by  Miss  Dunbar  some  months  after  the 
one  just  given,  and  is  a response  to  an  unexpected 
avowal  from  him  of  his  increasing  interest  in 
the  Church  of  Rome.  To  the  great  astonishment 
of  his  sister,  he  affirmed  that  the  only  bar  to  his 
submission  was  his  dislike  of  Papal  authority 
and  the  doctrine  of  Infallibility. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  this  dis- 
ability did  not  long  continue  to  be  an  insuperable 
barrier,  and  the  following  letter  from  Miss  Dunbar 
doubtless  had  at  least  something  to  do  with  her 
brother's  ultimate  submission  and  admission 
to  the  Church : 

My  dear  Hubert, 

Your  letter  came  as  a great  surprise.  I 
had  no  idea  your  thoughts  were  turning  “ towards 
Rome,”  but  if  things  are  really  as  you  say  they 
are  with  you,  it  seems  but  a very  small  thing 
that  is  preventing  your  submission.  Henry  VI I L 
threw  off  the  “ Papal  yoke  ” because  it  hindered 
his  lawless  courses  and  hampered  his  freedom  in 
wickedness.  You  have  no  such  reason  for  dis- 


103 


104  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


liking  Papal  authority,  and  I believe  your 
difficulties  are  really  only  the  shadow  of  an 
ancient  prejudice.  For  my  own  part,  I welcomed 
the  doctrine  of  an  infallible  Pope.  It  seemed  to 
afford  stable  ground  that  one  had  sought  in 
vain  amid  the  conflicting  doctrines  and  practices 
of  Anglicanism. 

In  spite  of  the  Prayer-Book,  I had  never  been 
able  to  acknowledge  the  King  of  England  as 
head  even  of  the  National  Church,  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  always  appeared 
reluctant  to  accept  that  position;  yet  it  seemed 
obvious  to  me  that  a Church,  like  every  great 
society,  needed  a ruler-in-chief,  with  supreme 
authority,  to  whom  her  clergy  and  laity  might 
appeal  in  times  of  difficulty  and  uncertainty, 
and  whose  judgments  they  might  and  must 
accept  as  final. 

All  these  requirements  are  met  in  the  person 
of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  I see  in  his  holy 
office  one  more  notable  instance  of  our  Lord’s 
tender  care  for  His  Church. 

St.  Peter  was  the  first  to  acknowledge  our 
Blessed  Lord’s  Divinity,  and  the  confident  declara- 
tion of  his  faith  gave  him  at  once  a pre-eminent 
place  among  the  Apostles,  and  elicited  from  his 
Master  those  pregnant  words:  “ Thou  art  Peter, 
and  upon  this  rock  I will  build  My  Church;  and 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ST.  PETER  105 

the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.” 
Having  provided  a ruler  for  His  Church,  our 
Lord  went  on  to  invest  him  with  authority — an 
authority  that  was  to  be  unimpeachable  and 
ratified  in  heaven.  “ I will  give^  unto  thee  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in 
heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven.”  Nothing  could  be 
clearer,  and  wonderful  and  even  terrible  as  the 
words  are,  they  do  but  satisfy  a reasonable 
expectation  that  God  would  bestow  on  His 
Chief  Shepherd  and  Vicegerent  Divine  powers 
for  the  unerring  direction  and  governance  of 
His  flock.  Even  before  the  consummation  of 
the  Incarnation  God  never  left  the  world  without 
some  visible,  conscious  agent  of  His  will,  a human 
witness  to  the  truth.  Moses  led  the  children 
of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  gave  them 
the  Ten  Commandments,  and  took  them  wander- 
ing in  the  wilderness  for  forty  years,  always 
under  the  direct  instructions  of  the  Most  High; 
and  when  at  last,  goaded  into  disobedience  by 
the  hard,  unruly  natures  of  his  charges,  the  meek 
man  failed  in  his  high  mission,  swift  retribution 
followed  that  left  no  possible  doubt  as  to  God’s 
intentions. 

Eli  and  Samuel,  David  and  Solomon,  all 


io6  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


received  the  clearest  intimations  of  what  God 
wished  them  to  do.  Hezekiah  (Ezekias),  spread- 
ing his  letter  before  God  in  the  Temple,  received 
infallible  guidance  concerning  his  course  of  action. 
Is  it  likely  that  the  Church  for  whom  Christ  died 
would  be  less  favoured  ? That  great  saint, 
Ignatius  Loyola,  believed  " that  between  Christ 
our  Lord,  the  Bridegroom,  and  the  Church,  His 
Bride,  there  is  the  same  Spirit  which  governs 
and  rules  us  to  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  because 
by  the  same  Spirit  and  Lord  of  all,  who  gave 
the  Ten  Commandments,  our  Holy  Mother  the 
Church  is  ruled  and  governed.” 

Now  in  this  twentieth  century,  quite  as  much 
as  in  St.  Ignatius’s  day — now,  when  a complex 
civilization  increases  daily  her  peril  and  her 
problems,  the  Church  requires  the  wise  direction 
of  a divinely-appointed  Shepherd. 

Can  we  suppose  she  is  left  without  certain 
guidance  and  a clear  revelation  of  God’s  Will  ? 
Is  it  not,  rather,  at  least  probable  that  the  decisions 
of  the  Holy  See  are  dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God,  and,  if  so,  may  it  not  be  well  for  us  to 
submit  with  reverence  and  obedience  ? 

With  such  thoughts  as  these  I approached 
the  doctrine  that  keeps  you  in  rebellion,  and  after 
some  consideration  I was  led  to  a whole-hearted 
acceptance  of  it. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ST.  PETER  107 


Not  the  Pope,  but  our  Blessed  Lord,  is  the 
Head,  Foundation,  and  King  of  the  Church  (as, 
if  you  like,  the  King  of  England  is  the  Emperor 
of  India),  but  in  the  person  of  His  Viceroy  we 
honour  and  tender  obedience  to  Him.  “ Peter,’ ' 
said  St.  Leo,  “ rules  all  whom  Christ  rules  as 
Head.” 

If  you  will  study  the  works  of  the  Fathers 
and  the  history  of  the  early  Church,  you  will  find 
that  those  whom  you  have  always  delighted  to 
honour  will  bear  out  the  truth  of  Catholic  belief. 
“ Over  the  Church,”  says  St.  Cyril,  “ the  Lord 
sets  Peter  as  a Shepherd,”  and  it  was  to  the 
See  of  Peter  that  the  early  Bishops  one  and  all 
repaired  when  danger  or  difficulty  beset  them. 
When  vexed  questions  of  faith  arose,  to  the 
Chair  of  Peter  they  carried  them,  and  there,  by 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  troubled  ones 
found  their  way  smoothed  out  and  their  problems 
solved.  “ Rome  has  spoken,  the  cause  is  finished,” 
declared  St.  Augustine  at  the  end  of  a difficulty. 
To  “the  power  of  the  keys”  the  Fathers  were 
ever  willing  to  submit,  for  the  sake  of  Him 
who  ordained  His  Apostle  to  be  the  mouthpiece 
and  deliverer  of  His  judgments.  “ The  power 
of  the  Holy  See  is  a matter  of  Gospel,”  declared 
Archbishop  Baldwin,  700  years  ago.  Earlier 
than  this  our  own  St.  Bede  wrote:  “ Wherefore 


io8  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


blessed  Peter,  who  confessed  Christ  with  true 
faith  and  followed  Him  with  true  love,  received 
in  a special  way  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  and  the  sovereignty  of  judicial  power 
in  the  Church;  to  the  end  that  all  the  faithful 
throughout  the  world  might  know  that,  whosoever 
shall  separate  himself  from  the  unity  of  Peter’s 
faith  and  from  Peter’s  fellowship,  can  neither 
obtain  absolution  from  the  bonds  of  sin,  nor 
admission  through  the  gates  of  the  heavenly 
kingdom.” 

“ Peter,”  wrote  St.  John  Chrysostom,  “ is 
the  leader  of  that  (Apostolic)  choir,  the  Mouth 
of  the  Apostles,  and  Head  of  that  family,  the 
Governor  of  the  whole  world,  the  Foundation 
of  the  Church.” 

The  works  of  the  Fathers  abound  in  such 
statements  as  these,  statements  which  prove 
beyond  a doubt  that  the  supremacy  of  the 
Roman  See  was  an  integral  part  of  the  doctrine 
held  by  the  primitive  Church.  It  is  worthy  of 
note,  too,  that  not  a single  ex-cathedra  pro- 
nouncement of  any  Pope  has  ever  been  reversed 
or  retracted;  this  fact  alone  is  a powerful  witness 
to  the  infinite  wisdom  directing  and  dictating 
all  such  utterances. 

It  is  bitterly  hard  to  be  obliged  to  acknowledge 
that  you  have  been  in  error  all  these  years,  and 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ST.  PETER  109 

to  be  told  that  your  Orders  are  invalid  and  your 
vows  null  and  void,  but  the  joy  that  will  be  yours 
when  you  have  made  the  sacrifice  will  compensate 
a thousandfold  for  all  your  present  pain. 

In  the  strength  of  Him  “ who  endured  the 
Cross,  despising  the  shame/'  and  now  is  seated 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  I pray  that  you  will 
find  courage  and  conviction  to  make  the  plunge, 
and  to  seize  upon  the  glorious  privileges  of  which 
you  have  been  hitherto  defrauded. 

In  bowing  to  the  supremacy  of  that  holy  old 
man  at  the  Vatican,*  you  will  at  last  be  setting 
your  feet  upon  the  Rock  which  can  never  be 
moved. 

I pray  for  you  each  day,  dear  Hubert,  and  long 
to  know  you  the  entirely  happy  man  you  have 
never  been  yet,  and  never  can  be  while  you 
remain  where  you  are. 

Your  affectionate  sister, 

Louise. 


* Pius  X. — Ed. 


LETTER  XVII 

CATHOLIC  VENERATION  OF  OUR  LADY 

The  three  letters  which  follow  are  extracts 
from  Miss  Dunbar’s  correspondence  with  a friend, 
Miss  Charlotte  Verney,  whose  Protestant  preju- 
dices and  misconceptions  Miss  Dunbar  sought 
frequently  to  combat.  Miss  Verney  was  a victim 
to  the  popular  fallacy  that  Catholics  worship 
Our  Lady  and  the  Saints,  and  in  the  following 
letter  Miss  Dunbar  sets  forth  clearly,  for  the 
benefit  of  her  friend,  the  falseness  of  the  accusa- 
tion, and  the  reasons  for  the  actual  honour  and 
reverence  paid  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the 
Saints  by  the  Catholic  Church. 

My  dear  Charlotte, 

In  your  last  letter  you  have  expressed 
exactly  what  were  once  my  own  prejudices  and 
opinions.  Forgive  me  for  using  the  word  preju- 
dices, for  now  that  I am  a Catholic  I find  there 
is  no  foundation  except  in  ignorance  and  preju- 
dice for  nine-tenths  of  the  objections  of  Protestants 
to  the  Church  of  Rome. 

Neither  you  nor  I were  responsible  for  our 
early  instinctive  aversion  to  that  Church;  it 
seemed  to  be  bred  in  our  very  bones,  for  the 


no 


VENERATION  OF  OUR  LADY  hi 


mother  who  would  fain  have  fed  and  fostered 
us,  was  presented  to  our  childhood  and  our  youth 
(perhaps  also  to  the  childhood  and  youth  of  our 
parents),  as  a “ bogie  " to  be  studiously  shunned. 

Like  many  another  " bogie,"  however,  an 
impartial  examination  proves  it  to  be  harmless. 
More,  far  more  than  that,  behind  the  dark  cloud 
of  misrepresentation  which  hides  her  glorious 
face  there  stands  no  " bogie,"  indeed,  but  a 
gracious  presence  in  our  midst,  who  exclaims 
in  the  plaintive  words  of  her  Lord:  "Ye  will 
not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have  life  !"  Life, 
nothing  less  than  life,  is  the  gift  she  has  power 
to  bestow. 

You  are  quite  mistaken,  dear  Charlotte,  if  you 
imagine  that  we  worship  the  Blessed  Virgin. 
We  invoke  her  aid  in  our  prayers,  we  love  her, 
we  reverence  her;  but  our  worship,  like  yours, 
is  directed  to  God,  and  God  alone. 

The  homage  we  pay  to  Mary  we  offer  to  a 
being,  human  like  ourselves,  yet  ranking  far 
above  us  in  that  she  was  chosen  and  prepared 
by  God  to  take  a supreme  place  in  His  scheme 
for  our  salvation. 

If  you  believe  with  all  your  heart  in  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  that  He  was  truly  God  as 
well  as  truly  man,  then  surely  the  woman  whose 
unique  privilege  it  was  to  be  His  Mother  cannot 


ii2  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


seem  to  you  to  be  altogether  unworthy  of  our 
profound  reverence  and  respect. 

Again,  if  you  believe,  as  all  must  surely  believe 
who  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  that  Mary  is  living  now,  close  to  her 
beloved  Son,  in  the  realms  of  the  blessed,  should 
it  seem  to  you  unnatural  that  we  implore  her  to 
pray  for  us,  who  is  so  much  honoured  by  our 
Father  and  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? More 
than  any  other  creature’s,  her  prayers  are  likely 
to  be  acceptable  with  God.  Our  devotion  to  her 
lessens  not  one  whit  our  worship  of  Him;  rather, 
it  is  those  who  love  God  best,  and  most  deeply 
appreciate  the  extraordinary  sacrifice  of  the 
Cross,  who  are  most  devoted  to  that  dear  Mother. 
It  is  for  her  share  in  all  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
that  we  love  her.  It  was  she  who  prepared  Him 
for  His  ministry,  she  who,  for  our  sakes,  resigned 
Him  to  a life  of  trial  and  hardship,  and  a death 
in  torture  and  ignominy;  she  whose  heart  was 
pierced,  for  us,  by  such  sorrows  as  no  other  woman 
has  ever  known. 

Have  you  ever  tried  to  realize  what  Mary 
must  have  endured  as  the  Mother  of  our  Lord, 
all  through  the  years  of  His  arduous  ministry 
and  at  their  tragic  close  ? 

“ There  stood  by  the  Cross  of  Jesus  His 
Mother.” 


VENERATION  OF  OUR  LADY  113 


The  sufferings  of  Jesus  must  have  been  un- 
told, and  aggravated  by  His  finely-tempered, 
sensitive  organization;  but  His  Mother  could 
scarcely  have  suffered  less  in  her  sympathy  with 
her  Son. 

“ At  the  cross  her  station  keeping, 

Stood  the  mournful  Mother  weeping, 

Close  to  Jesus  to  the  last. 

" Through  her  heart,  His  sorrow  sharing, 

All  His  bitter  anguish  bearing. 

Now  at  length  the  sword  had  passed. 

" Is  there  one  who  would  not  weep, 

Whelmed  in  misery  so  deep, 

Christ’s  dear  Mother  to  behold  ? 

“ Can  the  human  heart  refrain, 

From  partaking  in  her  pain, 

In  the  Mother’s  pain  untold  ? 

“ Bruised,  derided,  cursed,  defiled, 

She  beheld  her  tender  Child, 

All  with  bloody  scourges  rent. 

“For  the  sins  of  His  own  nation. 

Saw  Him  hang  in  desolation, 

Till  His  Spirit  forth  He  sent.”  * 

Though  the  details  that  have  come  down  to 
us  are  scanty  enough,  do  they  not  suffice  to 
assure  us  that  Mary  bore  with  most  dignified 
resignation  her  terrible  agony  of  mind  ? We 
read  of  no  hysterical  outburst,  such  as  might  well 
* The  Stabat  Mater . 


8 


ii4  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


have  been  wrung  from  so  devoted  a Mother, 
as  hour  after  hour  of  that  first  Good  Friday 
produced  fresh  torture  for  her  beloved  and 
innocent  Son.  Instructed,  doubtless,  by  Him, 
perhaps  years  before,  prepared  for  the  fate  that 
awaited  Him,  and  the  part  God  wished  her  to 
play,  when  the  time  came  she  showed  a noble 
acquiescence  and  a marvellous  fortitude  that 
enabled  her  to  remain  close  by  the  side  of  Jesus 
to  the  very  last.  It  is  not  recorded  that  she 
spoke  one  word,  but  we  may  suppose  that  her 
silent  sympathy  soothed  the  tortured  and  for- 
saken Man  upon  the  Cross,  and  His  last  instruc- 
tions were  for  her  welfare  and  to  provide  her  with 
a gentle,  human  comforter  in  the  affectionate 
and  faithful  John. 

We  cannot  deny  to  that  grand,  tragic  figure 
of  a Mother,  through  whom  God  gave  us  a 
Redeemer,  our  homage  and  our  grateful  love. 

We  do  not  exalt  her  as  a goddess;  we  crave 
her  protection  as  a tender  Mother  who,  out  of  the 
depths  of  her  own  experience  of  most  cruel  suffer- 
ing, is  able  to  understand  and  sympathize  with  us. 

This  is  the  simple  and  natural  feeling,  the 
reasoned  and  reasonable  affection  on  which  all 
our  “ idolatrous  practices  ” are  founded,  which 
lie  at  the  root  of  all  the  devotion  to  Mary  which 
has  from  the  earliest  days  distinguished  the 
Catholic  Church. 


VENERATION  OF  OUR  LADY  115 


We  feel  happily  assured  that  she,  who  did  so 
much  for  us  during  her  life  on  earth,  is  not  likely 
to  refuse  us  any  help  that  she  can  render  now. 

You  find  fault  because  our  churches  contain 
images,  statues,  and  pictures  before  which  we 
bow  and  pray.  Yet  are  not  the  memorials  of 
our  great  dead  to  be  seen  in  all  our  streets,  our 
squares,  and  temples  of  art  ? And  if  a man 
should  bow  before  the  marble  presentment  of 
a Nelson  or  a Pasteur,  should  hang  a wreath 
upon  the  pedestal,  and  utter  a prayer  that  God 
will  enable  him  to  serve  his  country  and  his 
fellow-men  as  faithfully  as  they  have  done,  who 
would  care  to  call  him  an  idolator  ? Very  few, 
I think;  and  you  must  surely  see  that  there  is 
neither  truth  nor  justice  in  the  condemnation 
meted  out  to  Catholics,  who  do  but  commemorate 
their  sainted  dead  in  the  same  way. 

I am  only  a novice  yet,  a very  young  pilgrim 
in  the  way,  but  if  I can  be  of  any  use  to  you  in 
clearing  up  difficulties  it  will  make  me  intensely 
happy.  In  England,  as  elsewhere,  the  Catholic 
Church  is  terribly  retarded  in  her  work  by  mis- 
conception and  prejudice,  and  to  those  who  have 
found  in  her  a long-sought  home,  it  is  a privilege 
to  be  allowed  to  roll  away  even  if  it  be  but  one 
stone  from  the  path  of  other  wayfarers. 

Your  affectionate 

Louise. 


LETTER  XVIII 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MASS 

Miss  Dunbar’s  letter  seems  to  have  had  the 
effect  of  rousing  Miss  Verney’s  interest  in  Catholic 
worship,  for  shortly  after  receiving  it  she  attended 
a Mass  for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  more  about 
Catholic  usages. 

To  her  chagrin,  she  could  understand  nothing 
of  the  service,  and  in  a subsequent  letter  to  her 
friend  she  expressed  her  disapproval  of  the 
“ theatrical  show,”  which  had  been  “ almost 
completely  unintelligible  ” to  her. 

Dear  Charlotte, 

The  rites  of  the  Catholic  Church  must 
always  be  “ unintelligible  ” to  those  who  are 
ignorant  of  her  teaching.  It  is  not  so  long  ago 
that  I,  too,  denounced  as  a " theatrical  show  ” 
the  beautiful  ceremonies  of  the  Mass  which  I 
saw  performed  in  so  many  churches  during  our 
Spanish  tour.  I can  understand  your  impressions 
perfectly,  because  they  were  once  my  own. 

But  now  that  I am  initiated,  how  different 
everything  appears ! There  is  not  a single 
genuflection  or  one  Dominus  Vobiscum  that  I 
would  willingly  spare  ! 

116 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MASS  117 


You  see,  dear  Charlotte,  Catholics  believe 
that  in  the  Mass  our  Blessed  Lord  Himself  is 
present  both  as  Victim  and  Priest,  and  that  He 
offers  to  God  by  the  hands  of  the  celebrant  His 
own  precious  Body  and  Blood.  It  is  true  that 
by  His  sufferings  on  the  Cross  He  made  once 
for  all  a complete  and  sufficient  atonement 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world;  His  physical 
pain  and  suffering  were  over  when  He  cried, 
“It  is  finished,”  and  yielded  up  His  soul  to  the 
Father.  Yet  He  who  is  “a  Priest  for  ever 
after  the  order  of  Melchisedech  ” still  ^-presents 
that  completed  Sacrifice  to  God  for  us,  day  by  day, 
upon  the  altar,  under  the  species  of  bread  and  wine. 

This,  in  a few  simple  words,  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Mass,  and  I think  it  will  explain  much  that 
appears  so  strange  and  extravagant  to  you. 

The  Holy  Sacrifice  is  really  neither  more  nor 
less  than  the  supreme  expression  of  the  love  of 
Christ  to  the  Church,  and  of  her  joyous  and 
grateful  response.  The  service  is  the  work  of 
ages  of  devout  worshippers  and  believers.  It 
sums  up  the  worship  not  only  of  the  visible 
congregation,  but  of  an  invisible  throng  of 
saints  and  prophets  and  martyrs,  whose  prayers 
of  penitence  and  chants  of  praise  are  embodied 
in  the  service,  and  who  join  their  thanksgiving 
to  ours  before  thej throne  of  God. 


n8  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


If  our  Lord  is  really  at  the  altar  and  upon  the 
altar,  as  we  most  firmly  believe,  then  you  must 
confess  it  is  impossible  for  priest  or  people  to 
show  too  much  reverence  and  awe. 

For  my  own  part,  I sometimes  long  to  kneel 
with  my  face  on  the  pavement,  instead  of  de- 
corously bolt  upright  on  my  comfortable  kneeler. 
The  burning  gratitude  one  feels  and  the  sweet- 
ness and  joy  of  that  Presence  are  difficult  to 
sustain  with  a quiet,  unmoved  demeanour,  and 
one  is  indeed  thankful  for  the  genuflections  of 
the  priest  and  the  kisses  he  bestows  upon  the 
altar,  for  each  token  of  loving  worship  that  is 
shown  in  the  sanctuary  is  a relief  to  the  over- 
burdened heart. 

The  priest  has  a twofold  office:  he  represents 
our  Blessed  Lord,  but  he  also  represents  the  whole 
body  of  the  Church.  He  gathers  up  all  the 
devotion  of  the  people,  all  the  deep  love  and 
longing  of  the  assembled  hearts,  and  offers  them 
at  the  altar  in  every  beautiful  mode  of  expression 
the  reverent  ingenuity  of  man  can  devise.  So 
full  of  meaning  is  each  action  that  if  aught  were 
omitted  of  that  divine  service,  or  were  performed 
without  due  reverence  and  care,  the  priest 
would  wound  and  injure,  not  only  the  heart 
of  our  Blessed  Lord,  but  also  the  heart  of  each 
earnest  worshipper  participating  in  the  Sacrifice. 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MASS  119 

What  you  saw  were  not  the  empty  shows  of 
Formalism,  but  the  carefully  ordered  yet  passion- 
ate expression  of  real  devotion;  the  ceremonial 
of  a Church  which  does  not  pay  tribute  to  a 
God  who  is  far-off  and  remote  from  human 
affairs,  but  to  One  who  loves  to  tabernacle  with 
men,  and  craves  a true  and  intimate  union  with 
them. 

It  is  an  overwhelming  sense  of  His  Presence, 
and  a vivid  appreciation  of  His  condescension, 
which  prompt  every  bit  of  ritual  in  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  is  natural  that  it  should  appear  to 
you  a little  strange  and  bewildering,  but  it  is  be- 
cause you  lack  the  key-note  to  its  lovely  music. 

A few  days  ago  I read  a description  of  the 
experience  of  a visitor  to  a wireless  telegraph 
station.  Before  the  receivers  were  tuned  up  the 
air  seemed  full  of  weird,  demoniac  sounds ; 
everything  was  confused,  meaningless,  and  per- 
plexing, because  the  key-note  was  wanting. 
But  directly  the  receivers  were  properly  attuned 
a great  change  took  place;  each  sound  gained 
its  true  proportion,  shaped  itself  into  a word, 
and  was  impressed  upon  the  delicate  instrument 
in  a clear,  intelligible  message.  All  that  was 
confused  fell  into  order  and  became  charged  with 
meaning,  all  that  was  perplexing  grew  perfectly 
simple.  I can  find  no  better  picture  than  this 


120  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


to  describe  the  experience  of  a non-Catholic 
who  is  present  for  the  first  time  at  the  service 
of  the  Mass. 

Without  the  key-note  of  Catholic  faith  for 
guidance,  the  ritual  appears  extravagant  and 
meaningless;  it  is  what  an  orchestral  concert  is 
to  one  who  has  no  knowledge  of  music,  or  a 
pageant  to  an  onlooker  who  has  no  programme. 
But  to  the  instructed,  it  is  the  most  beautiful 
thing  in  the  whole  world. 

“ I declare,”  said  Cardinal  Newman,  “to  me 
nothing  is  so  consoling,  so  piercing,  so  thrilling, 
so  overcoming  as  the  Mass,  said  as  it  is  among 
us.  I could  attend  Masses  for  ever,  and  not  be 
tired.”  * 

The  ceremonial  moves  onward  in  stately 
grandeur,  the  Holy  Visitor  passes  by,  and  we  who 
touch  even  if  it  be  but  the  hem  of  His  garment, 
find  that  virtue  issues  from  Him  which  has  power 
to  heal  us  all. 

“ Each  in  his  own  place,  with  his  own  heart, 
with  his  own  wants,  with  his  own  thoughts, 
with  his  own  intention,  with  his  own  prayers, 
separate,  but  concordant,  watching  what  is 
going  on,  watching  its  progress,  united  in  its 
consummation,  not  painfully  and  hopelessly 
following  a hard  form  of  prayer  from  beginning 

* “ Loss  and  Gain/’  Cardinal  Newman. 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  MASS  121 


to  end,  but,  like  a concert  of  musical  instruments, 
each  different,  but  concurring  in  a sweet  harmony,^, 
we  take  our  part  with  God’s  priest,  supporting 
him,  yet  guided  by  him.  There  are  little 
children  there,  and  old  men,  and  simple  labourers, 
and  students  in  seminaries,  priests  preparing 
for  Mass,  priests  saying  their  thanksgiving; 
there  are  innocent  maidens,  and  there  are  penitent 
sinners;  but  out  of  these  many  minds  rises  one 
Eucharistic  hymn,  and  the  great  action  is  the 
measure  and  the  scope  of  it.”  * 

I am,  dear  Charlotte, 

Yours  ever, 
Louise. 


* “ Loss  and  Gain,”  Cardinal  Newman. 


LETTER  XIX 

OUR  LORD  IN  THE  TABERNACLE 

Miss  Verney’s  antagonism  to  Catholicism  led 
her  to  write  one  more  letter  to  Miss  Dunbar,  in 
which  she  inquired  why  it  is  that  Catholics 
always  appear  to  be  saying  their  private  prayers 
in  church,  instead  of  in  their  own  rooms,  as  our 
Lord  advised.  “ I never  enter  a Catholic  Church,” 
she  complained,  “ without  finding  ever  so  many 
people  kneeling  down.  It  seems  to  me  such  a 
parade  of  religion — just  that  which  our  Lord 
condemned  in  the  Pharisees,  who  ‘ loved  to  pray 
standing  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  corners 
of  the  streets,'  that  they  might  ‘ be  seen  of 
men.’  ” 

Ignoring  this  last  sally,  Miss  Dunbar  in  the 
following  letter  seeks  to  show  her  friend  Who 
and  What  are  the  great  source  of  attraction  in  all 
Catholic  churches: 

My  dear  Charlotte, 

Before  I became  a Catholic,  or  knew  any- 
thing of  Catholic  faith,  I too  was  at  a loss  to 
explain  the  constant  presence  of  worshippers 
in  Catholic  churches.  I did  not  suppose  that 
Catholics  are  better  than  other  folk,  or  more 
inclined  to  religious  practices,  yet  how  to  account 

122 


OUR  LORD  IN  THE  TABERNACLE  123 


for  their  frequent  visits  to  their  churches  I did 
not  know.  While  Anglican  and  Nonconformist 
edifices,  even  in  crowded  thoroughfares,  remained 
empty  from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  at  the  neighbour- 
ing Catholic  churches  I noticed  a constant, 
gentle  stream  of  people  passing  in  and  out, 
whose  demeanour  was  uniformly  reverent  and 
devout.  The  little  children  would  walk  in  on 
tiptoe,  kneel  and  say  their  prayers  with  perfect 
decorum,  and  creep  out  again  in  silence,  or 
speaking  together  only  in  the  lowest  tones. 
Rough  workmen  would  approach  with  hushed 
and  stealthy  footsteps,  and  after  sitting  or 
kneeling  awhile,  with  eyes  fixed  upon  the  altar, 
would  make  a profound  obeisance  before  leaving. 
" What  can  it  mean  ?”  I asked  myself,  whenever 
I entered  a Catholic  church.  “ What  was  the 
source  of  such  devotion  in  the  ignorant  and 
unlearned  ?” 

One  day,  while  on  a visit  to  Florence,  I sat  for 
some  time  in  the  Duomo,  and  watched  the  motley 
throng  which  flows  unceasingly  through  the 
aisles  of  that  dim  church — men  and  women, 
young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  strong  and  decrepit, 
market  women  with  their  baskets,  cripples  with 
their  crutches,  ladies  in  silks  and  jewels,  boys 
and  girls  hand-in-hand — and  as  one  and  all 
passed  before  the  altar  I marvelled  at  the  look 


124  THE  progress  of  a soul 


of  exaltation  on  each  face,  the  expression  of 
real  worship  and  a genuine  faith. 

But  now  their  secret  is  disclosed  to  me,  and 
I marvel  and  am  puzzled  no  longer ; that  of  which 
I was  then  ignorant,  the  Presence  of  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  in  the  tabernacle,  explains  all.  I do 
not  wonder  now  that  I saw  dawn  there,  on  many 
a saddened  face,  a look  of  infinite  consolation 
and  of  peace  restored;  I feel  no  longer  any  surprise 
that  aged  faces  lost  their  lines,  and  weary  faces 
their  fatigue,  under  the  divinely  refreshing  influ- 
ence of  that  Holy  Presence.  Catholics  soar 
above  the  limitations  set  for  those  of  other 
faiths,  for  they  may  approach  Jesus  in  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  at  any  time.  Catholic  churches 
(except  in  districts  where  there  is  a danger  of 
sacrilege  being  committed)  are  always  open, 
the  tabernacle  and  the  Host  are  always  there, 
and,  entering,  we  are  at  once  at  the  feet  of  the 
" Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls,”  who  will 
speak  into  our  listening  ears  words  of  infinite 
love  and  consolation. 

We  Catholics  are  under  no  necessity  to  visit 
this  church  and  that,  with  a view  to  selecting 
one  where  the  services  and  sermon  are  most  nearly 
suited  to  our  peculiar  needs.  In  every  Catholic 
church  the  Mass  is  celebrated  daily,  Jesus  Him- 
self is  always  present,  and  as  we  kneel  before  the 
tabernacle,  or  receive  His  Blessed  Body,  gorgeous 


OUR  LORD  IN  THE  TABERNACLE  125 


ritual  and  eloquent  sermons  are  alike  matters  of 
indifference  to  us,  for  we  are  in  the  close  embrace 
of  Him  Who  is  the  Lord  of  all. 

One  hears  of  the  churches  of  certain  denomina- 
tions being  crowded  or  empty  when  a popular 
preacher  is  or  is  not  advertised  to  preach  the 
sermon,  but  to  a Catholic  the  priests  of  his 
Church,  be  they  clever  or  simple,  eloquent  or 
of  stammering  speech,  are  all  alike  the  vehicles 
of  God's  mercies,  and  are  therefore  always  to 
be  honoured,  but  with  an  honour  which  is  but 
a faint  reflection  of  that  which  they  love  to  render 
to  the  Lord  Himself. 

In  all  the  Sacraments  the  priest  is  but  the 
channel  of  Christ’s  gifts.  In  the  confessional 
he  is  the  mouthpiece  through  whom  the  great 
Absolver  gives  His  pardon.  In  the  Mass  he  is 
the  instrument  of  consecration  by  whom  the 
Lord  is  called  among  us,  but  each  soul  is  left  in 
perfect  freedom  to  greet  the  Sacred  Victim  in  the 
way  he  feels  most  fitting.  Thus,  a stranger  who 
is  present  at  a Catholic  Mass  will  perhaps  feel 
some  surprise  at  seeing  one  worshipper  telling 
his  beads,  another  using  a book  of  devotions, 
another  following  the  service  in  the  Missal, 
and  yet  others  kneeling  or  sitting  without  any 
apparent  aids  to  devotion,  following  only  with 
an  attentive  spirit  the  progress  of  the  Sacrifice. 
The  voice  of  the  priest  is  scarcely  heard;  all 


126  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


thoughts  are  centred  upon  the  supreme  act  to 
be  performed;  the  worshippers  await  in  silence 
the  moment  of  Consecration — the  coming  of  the 
Lord;  all  bend  low  at  the  tinkle  of  the  bell  which 
announces  His  approach.  The  sermon,  intended 
to  prepare  us  for  what  is  to  follow,  is  of  but  secon- 
dary importance  compared  with  the  stupendous 
miracle  of  the  Transubstantiation  of  the  elemental 
bread  and  wine.  This  daily  reincarnation  of  the 
Word  of  God  is  the  central  theme  of  the  true 
Catholic’s  thoughts  and  thanksgiving,  and  while 
others  flock  to  listen  to  this  preacher  or  that,  or 
are  absorbed  in  questions  of  ritual  and  problems 
of  doctrine,  he  rests  serenely  in  the  bosom  of 
Jesus,  and  finds  in  Him  an  ever-flowing  fountain 
of  wisdom  and  of  peace. 

A true  Catholic  is  indifferent  to  externals;  he 
flies  straight  to  the  Sacred  Heart,  so  deeply 
wounded  for  him,  and  values  all  exterior  things 
only  as  means  of  honouring  his  Lord. 

Not  “ that  they  may  be  seen  of  men  ” do 
Catholics  gather  all  day  long  in  their  churches, 
but  to  find  there  what  the  multitude  sought 
who  thronged  about  the  Saviour — direction, 
healing,  comfort,  and  sympathy  in  every  need, 
both  of  their  souls  and  bodies. 

I am  ever, 

Yours  affectionately, 

Louise. 


LETTER  XX 

THE  MORAL  INFLUENCE  OF 
CHRISTIANITY 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  Miss  Dunbar 
almost  a year  after  her  admission  to  the  Church. 
Mr.  Charles  Felton,  a young  cousin  at  Oxford, 
is  a member  of  a distant  branch  of  her  family 
which  has  been  Catholic  for  two  generations, 
and  he  was  brought  up  in  the  faith  from  baby- 
hood. The  influences  of  Oxford  appear  for  the 
time,  however,  to  have  shaken  Mr.  Felton’s 
faith,  and  he  was  on  the  point  of  breaking 
altogether  free  from  his  allegiance  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  even  of  abandoning  Christianity, 
when  Miss  Dunbar’s  timely  intervention  and 
comprehending  sympathy  saved  him  from  what 
might  have  proved  a spiritual  and  moral  catas- 
trophe. 

My  dear  Charles, 

I read  your  letter  with  dismay,  for  I know 
from  my  own  experience  what  a dangerous 
path  you  are  treading,  and  how  far  it  will  in- 
evitably lead  you  from  the  ideals  and  principles 
which  have  guided  you  hitherto. 

Believe  me,  in  breaking  from  the  Catholic 
Church  you  will  cast  from  you  a possession 

127 


128  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


without  which  all  that  you  most  deeply  prize 
is  worthless.  You  will  dry  up  at  its  spring  a 
well  of  happiness,  of  deep,  pure  satisfaction, 
which  rivers  of  earthly  fame  and  plenty  can 
never  bring  you.  You  will  separate  yourself 
from  the  one,  true,  infallible  Guide,  without 
Whom  you  will  find  yourself  hopelessly  astray. 

It  is  impossible  for  you  now  to  realize  to  what 
extremes  free- thought  will  ultimately  drive  you. 
You  imagine  you  have  formed  a worthier  idea 
of  God  than  that  conception  of  Him  which  the 
Christian  faith  embodies.  This  delusion  is  the 
first  snare  for  the  feet  of  those  who  stray  into  the 
byways  of  religious  speculation ; it  is  a flattering 
deception  of  the  intellect  which  will  lead  you  only 
into  the  sterile  wastes  of  profitless  conjecture 
and  fruitless  search  for  truth. 

Exactly  because  you  have  been  brought  up 
a Catholic  you  are  blind  to  the  depth  of  the  gulf 
into  which  you  are  so  light-heartedly  plunging. 
You  cannot  conceive,  because  you  have  never 
known,  the  horror  of  darkness  and  despair 
which  at  last  enwraps  the  soul  that  loses  sight 
of  Jesus  Christ.  You  have  grown  used  to  Him, 
and  custom  has  for  the  moment  robbed  Him  of 
His  charm;  His  law  and  life  have  become  un- 
consciously so  much  a part  of  you  that  you  have 
ceased  to  realize  your  debt  to  Him.  Y ou  attribute 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  129 


to  your  conscience  and  your  natural  instincts 
towards  right  the  part  He  plays  of  Monitor 
and  Guide.  But  close  the  door  for  ever  in  His 
face,  and  you  will  find  that  conscience  itself  will 
fall  asleep  or  become  a traitor  whom  you  cannot 
trust. 

Conscience,  indeed,  is  far  more  dependent 
upon  the  dictates  of  its  possessor  than  you  are 
at  all  aware. 

A cannibal  cheerfully  consumes  his  human  cap- 
tive without  a qualm  of  conscience  to  warn  him 
that  he  is  committing  deadly  crime,  and  there 
are  decadent  youths  to-day  who  “ sponge  ” upon 
their  parents  and  ruin  their  associates  without 
exhibiting  any  traces  of  remorse. 

Conscience  rebels  only  when  there  has  been  an 
infringement  of  the  particular  code  of  honour 
that  has  been  adopted;  it  will  never  rise  to 
greater  heights  than  this.  You  cannot  trust  it  as 
the  voice  of  God  unless  you  have  His  laws  first 
firmly  rooted  in  your  soul. 

Never  have  I realized  so  clearly  as  I do  now 
the  value  of  religion  and  the  vital  influence  it 
exercises  on  the  moral  life.  Observation  and 
experience  have  convinced  me  that  without 
religion  no  great  height  of  moral  culture  can  ever 
be  attained,  nor  even  any  perfection  of  the 
sweet  domestic  virtues  of  gentleness,  forbearance, 

9 


130  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


and  tender  thought  for  others  which  spring  so 
readily  in  the  fostering  soil  of  Christian  love 
and  faith.  I do  not  mean  to  say  that  agnostics, 
or  even  atheists  (if  atheists  exist),  are  necessarily 
wicked  and  unkind.  Our  social  intercourse  of 
every  day  would  contradict  a statement  such 
as  that,  but  I do  venture  to  declare  that  a man 
or  woman  who  has  no  faith  possesses  neither 
the  same  clear  views  of  right  and  wrong,  nor 
in  temptation  the  same  power  of  resistance  to 
evil,  as  those  have  who  are  Christians  and,  above 
all,  Catholics. 

I once  thought  otherwise.  Belief  and  un- 
belief appeared  to  me,  as  now  they  do  to  you, 
merely  as  intellectual  processes  which  could 
not  have  any  conceivable  influence  over  conduct, 
nor  affect  in  any  way  one's  power  for  good. 

Several  years  ago  I came  to  just  such  a parting 
of  the  ways  as  that  with  which  you  are  con- 
fronted now.  For  want  of  proper  instruction 
I lost  the  Christian  faith,  and  I launched  out,  as 
you  propose  to  do,  upon  the  tossed  and  troubled 
sea  of  scientific  speculation  and  of  unbelief. 
Like  you,  I trusted  conscience  to  steer  my  little 
boat  through  every  storm,  and  I imagined  that 
I left  behind  me  only  worn-out  creeds  and 
ineffective  forms  of  worship — the  burdens  of 
a narrow-minded  clergy  ! With  a light,  un- 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  131 


trammelled  heart  I sailed  forth  upon  a voyage 
of  discovery,  with  no  pilot  but  my  instincts,  and 
with  only  conscience  for  a helm.  Far  from  the 
shore  I drifted  away,  far  out  of  sight  of  the  old 
landmarks  and  the  harbour  lights  of  early  faith; 
I stowed  away  my  Bible  and  my  old,  well-worn 
a Kempis,  and  new,  strange  volumes  filled  their 
places  on  my  shelves.  I did  not  talk  about  my 
loss  of  faith,  but  it  was  nevertheless  complete, 
and  if  freedom  of  intellect  and  will  bring  happi- 
ness, I ought  to  have  been  radiantly  happy  then. 

It  is  said  that  the  history  of  the  individual 
is  the  history  in  miniature  of  nations. 

You  know  how  much  peace  and  prosperity 
the  loss  of  faith  has  brought  to  France,  to  Portugal, 
or  to  any  other  State  where  the  Christian  religion 
is  despised  and  banned.  You  know  well  the 
disorder,  anarchy,  and  crime  which  have  speedily 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  suppression  of  religion 
everywhere. 

Not  long  ago  I saw  in  a newspaper  the  following 
note  on  the  present  appalling  state  of  France; 
a cogent  article  on  the  increase  of  juvenile  crime 
concluded  with  these  words: 

“It  is  unquestionable  that  the  destruction 
of  spiritual  ideals  has  created  a void  which  is 
being  filled  up  by  gross  and  unlovely  materialism 
‘ Ni  Dieu,  ni  maitre/  is  the  rule  of  conduct  no 


132  THE  PROGRESS  OF  A SOUL 


longer  confined  to  adults.  . . . Official  statistics 
are  helpless  to  portray  the  general  demoraliza- 
tion; . . . the  only  remedy  is  education  on  a 
Christian  basis.”  * 

“ The  destruction  of  spiritual  ideals  ”!  That  is 
the  clue  to  the  misery  produced  by  unbelief. 
I found  myself,  devoid  of  faith  in  Christ,  devoid 
also  of  any  satisfying  ideal  of  life,  without  any 
positive  moral  standard  by  which  to  measure 
true  and  false,  and  right  and  wrong.  The  touch- 
stone of  Christian  ethics  being  lost,  truth  and 
sophistry  were  hopelessly  confused,  and  it  became 
impossible  to  disentangle  one  from  the  other, 
or  to  distinguish  with  any  certainty  between 
them.  In  this  moral  fog  I lived  for  several 
years,  falling,  I must  confess,  into  many  a miser- 
able mistake,  and  growing  more  unhappy  every 
day;  but  at  length  a crisis  came,  and  with  it, 
thank  God — illumination.  At  the  moment  when 
I might  have  gone  to  pieces  on  the  rocks,  a flash 
of  light  revealed  the  face  of  Jesus  as  the  face  of 
God,  the  law  of  Jesus  as  the  law  of  God,  and  in 
Peter’s  boat  I found  at  last  security  and  peace. 

“ They  fondly  thought  to  err  from  God, 

Nor  knew  the  circle  that  they  trod; 

And,  wandering  all  the  night  about. 

Found  them  at  morn  where  they  set  out.” 

* This  was  written  before  the  war  broke  out.  France 
is  in  a very  different  moral  mood  to-day. — Ed. 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  133 


I have  told  you  this  about  myself  that  you 
may  know  how  fully  I can  understand  and 
sympathize  with  you.  I would  not  have  you 
make  that  dreadful  “ circle,”  for  the  memory 
of  the  pain  and  suffering  I endured  are  with  me 
still,  and  now  the  morn  has  come,  and  I find  myself 
at  anchor  in  the  haven,  I marvel  at  the  impulses 
which  led  me  forth  to  brave  the  hazards  of  that 
dreary  voyage. 

Stick  to  your  post,  and  your  difficulties  and 
doubts  will  vanish  by-and-by. 

“ God  spoke  and  gave  us  the  word  to  keep; 

Bade  never  fold  the  hands  nor  sleep 
Mid  a faithless  world — at  watch  and  ward. 

Till  the  Christ  at  the  end  relieve  our  guard.” 

Write  to  me  soon  and  let  me  know  what  books 

you  are  getting  from  Father  . I can  lend 

you  some  useful  ones  if  you  like. 

Your  affectionate  cousin, 

Louise. 


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